Linguine con granseola/Linguine with spider crab

I’ve always been a bit curious to see how cooking a spider crab would turn out; I’d only ever eaten them in restaurants. I imagined it would be very labor-intensive, and indeed it was—quite a challenge. Since I’d bought a spider crab that was still alive, I wanted to cook it that way, so I put it in the freezer for half an hour. Once I took it out of the freezer, I rinsed it under running water and boiled it for 25 minutes in a pot with celery, onion, and carrot. After the time was up, I took it out and let it cool; don’t throw away the broth it was cooked in because I’ll use it again to boil the spider crab carcass a little more, and then I’ll add the linguine to it. Once it had cooled enough to handle, I began to disassemble it: first, I removed the shell over a bowl because it releases liquid that will be used in cooking; then I disassembled the whole thing, starting with the claws, broke the head in two with the help of a pair of scissors, and placed all the meat on a plate.

In a deep pan, sauté an onion and a clove of garlic in a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, then add some cherry tomatoes, chopped into small pieces. Once the cherry tomatoes are fully cooked, add the crab meat from the bowl where you opened the crab to the pan, along with salt, pepper, and finely chopped chili pepper. In a large pot, bring lightly salted water to a boil. When the linguine is almost cooked, add all the crab meat and chopped parsley to the pan, cook for a few minutes, then add the linguine (which is not yet fully cooked). Finish cooking the linguine in the pan, adding some of the cooking water occasionally until the linguine is cooked through. Plate the dish by arranging the linguine starting from the inside of the spider crab shell, then finish by drizzling everything with a little extra virgin olive oil. It’s a lot of work, but I guarantee it’s absolutely delicious!!

BUON APPETITO!!