Basil Lemon Crab Linguine

Back to school week at the daycare is always strange. The older kids we have had since they were two and three graduate into kindergarten and new little ones come in terrified. We lost six this year who I had known for three or four years. Their parents bring them by to show them off in their backpacks and I smile and mean it but there is always this small hollow thing afterward.

One of the new enrollments is a girl named Brianna, four years old, who came in wearing a sundress holding a stuffed duck and announced that her name was Brianna and she liked macaroni. I told her we had mac and cheese on Wednesdays and she said is it the good kind. I said I thought it was pretty good. She said okay and walked in and sat down like she owned the place.

Sunday at Gloria we made macaroni and cheese, the real kind, baked, with three cheeses and a breadcrumb top. Destiny helped tear the bread for the crumbs. She has been staying close in the kitchen lately, watching, occasionally asking why do you do it that way, and I realize I cannot always answer except to say because that is how Gloria taught me and Gloria nods like that is sufficient.

It is sufficient. It is the whole answer.

Miss Layla cried in the break room on Thursday. She is twenty-two and this was her first cohort of kids going to kindergarten. I told her it gets easier. She asked if it really does. I said no, but you get better at holding it. That is a different thing and maybe better. She laughed through the crying and went back out to the classroom and I thought she is going to be good at this job.

We made mac and cheese that Sunday, but the recipe I keep coming back to — the one that carried the same feeling of being fed by someone who loves you — is this linguine, simple and bright and just rich enough to feel like it means something. Brianna asked me if it was the good kind, and I think about that question a lot now. This is the good kind. The kind where the lemon wakes everything up and the crab is gentle and the basil smells like summer and you eat it slowly because the week was long and you earned it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

12 oz linguine
1 lb lump crab meat, picked over for shells
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, torn or roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving

Instructions

Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook linguine according to package directions until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water before draining. Drain and set aside.
Build the sauce base. In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil and butter together. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute until fragrant but not browned.
Deglaze with wine. Pour in the white wine and let it simmer for 2—3 minutes, reducing by about half. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest and stir to combine.
Add the crab. Gently fold in the crab meat and heat through for 2 minutes, taking care not to break up the lumps too much. Season with salt and pepper.
Toss with pasta. Add the drained linguine to the skillet and toss to coat, adding splashes of reserved pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce to your liking.
Finish with basil. Remove from heat and fold in the fresh basil. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately with grated Parmesan on top.

Nutrition (per serving)

Basil Lemon Crab Linguine — The Good Kind