
Ok, in all fairness as you can probably see by the picture, I used imitation crab claws. However this recipe can use real crab meat as well. If you aren’t a fan of imitation crab meat but don’t want to “shell out” (pun intended) on expensive real crab, you can use canned lump crab meat as well. At the end of the day, it’s still a creamy crab pasta.
If you like imitation crab recipes you should try my crab salad which is just a fantastic potluck or party dish.

The cream sauce I made for this pasta is a simple one with a base of heavy cream, butter, and Gran Padano. Some people will never put cheese and seafood together, but I do, so I did. It really is not the same thing as grating some cheddar over a filet of whitefish.
For the pasta I found this wonderful tagliolini made trafilata in Bronzo. The lovely pink hue comes from the fact that it is made with real salmon. That’s partially the reason I wanted to use it in a seafood pasta. I was able to pick it up at my Italian import market, but you might be able to find it at a gourmet market near you.

I’ve recently become a fan of trafilata in Bronzo pastas because I feel they are much better at holding sauce. The rough surface goes great with cream sauces like the one in this creamy crab pasta. I recently bought a trafilata mafaldine for my Rabbit Ragu With Mafaldine Pasta recipe!
All in all, this recipe only takes about 15 -20 minutes which makes it a perfect weeknight meal. I always say pasta can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. Sometimes I want to use store-bought noodles like in my Linguini With Clams and other times I’ll spend an entire afternoon making Fresh Ricotta Ravioli With Walnut Sauce.


Creamy Crab Pasta
Equipment
- 1 Pan
- 1 Pot
Ingredients
- 100 grams Crab Meat I used imitation, but you can use whole or lump crab meat yourself
- 250 grams Pasta I used Tagliolini, but of course the choice is yours
- 100 ml Heavy Cream
- 100 ml Milk
- 30 grams Gran Padano grated
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 small Shallot chopped
- 1 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
- Salt to taste
- Parsley garnish
- 4 tbsp Ricotta optional
Instructions
- In a pot begin boiling heavily salted water. The pasta I chose takes 8 minutes for al dente which is the perfect time to make the sauce. Add the pasta to the water once you have all your ingredients mise-en-place
- In a skillet on medium, add a tbsp of oil (I used the crab oil the claws were packed in) and the chopped shallot. Let fry for a couple minutes.
- Add the cream, milk, and butter. When the butter melts add the grated gran padano cheese, salt and pepper. Taste for salt as gran padano can be salty by itself. Let the sauce thicken until the pasta is done.
- Use tongs to bring the pasta from the boiling water directly into the pan. No need to strain. This method also brings along some of the starchy pasta water which is great for getting the sauce to thicken and stick. Give it a few tosses to get all the pasta coated, then add some parsley and serve. Optionally you can add a couple quenelles of ricotta on top for some extra creaminess.