This Spicy, Buttery Crab Pasta Is Just About Foolproof

A good crab cake is hard to find. The more crab, the better. But also: The more crab, the more likely it is to fall apart. And when it falls apart, all you’re left with is an unshapely, buttery, Old Bay-y crab and salty cracker mixture…

Wait, why is this a bad thing?

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A crab cake that has fallen to pieces may not be on purpose, but it can be reborn as many other meals. You could scoop it up with more crackers. Spread it on toast. Fold it into a quesadilla. Roll it into sushi. Or, my favorite, toss it with hot pasta.

In fact, you could skip the Oh no! My crab cakes are ruined! part altogether, and fast-forward right to making crab pasta. It’s a dinner that feels special enough for a birthday or date night, but is just about impossible to mess up.

Here’s how it comes together:

Sautéed vegetables. Onion and celery are classic in a crab cake. In this recipe, we’ll ditch the onions and swap in two other alliums: scallions and leeks. I love their bright colors and grassy flavors.

Jumbo lump crab meat. This is even chunkier than lump crab meat, which means by the time you’re done tossing the pasta, you’ll still end up with lots of big pieces. That said, it’s also more expensive—so if you want to opt for lump instead, that works, too. Just toss extra carefully.

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Short-shaped pasta. Short-shaped pasta is ideal for lots of mix-ins (versus, say, a saucy marinara you’d ladle on spaghetti). It could be farfalle, rigatoni, penne, you name it. As for me? I love the shells’ beachy vibe and the way they hug the crab.

Old Bay sauce. The ingredients for this no-cook sauce are plucked straight out of a crab cake recipe: mayonnaise, Old Bay, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire. (Psst: Keep this on call as a dip for roasted shrimp cocktail.)

Buttery Saltines. Smashed crackers are used as a binder in crab cakes. Here, they’re going to be a crunchy-crumbly garnish. You could just break up some Saltines on top—of course, this would be good. But what’s even better is if you break up the saltines into a hot, buttery skillet, and let them get golden and extra-crispy.

Serve this with an extremely cold bottle of white wine. And if you can find a way to eat it outside, even better.