Crab and lemon linguine with pesto garlic bread

Pictures and video to follow shortly

This is my husbands comfort food and I must admit is not only very quick and easy to make it also looks fantastic and can easily be a dinner party dish or just a great family meal. You can replace the crabmeat with lobster or crayfish.

Preparation time: 10mins
Cooking time: 20mins

Serves 4

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
½ tsp chilli flakes
1 lemon, zest and juice
Splash (50ml) white wine
340g white crab meat (you can use 2 x 170g cans, drained)
1 x (198g) can sweetcorn, drained
100g frozen peas
300g linguine, cooked as per instructions
1 tbsp fresh parsley, roughly chopped
100g fresh Parmesan, grated
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for the pesto garlic bread

Small French stick, cut ¾ through, in 1cm slices (so they are still attached)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp pesto sauce
1 clove fresh garlic, crushed

Method to make the pesto garlic bread

1. Pre-heat the oven 200C, 400F, Gas 6
2. Mix the olive oil, pesto and garlic in a small bowl and spread onto the French bread.
3. Wrap the bread in a piece of foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
4. Open the foil, so the top of the bread is exposed and cook for a further 5 minutes to crisp the top of the bread.

Method to make the pasta

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta
2. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a large sauté, or frying pan, add the garlic and chilli flakes and allow to gently infuse the olive oil over a low heat for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile cook the linguine as per the instructions, add the peas to the pan for the last 2 minutes.
4. Add the crabmeat and corn to the sauté pan, the zest and juice of the lemon and the wine. Season and shake the pan to mix, allow to heat over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
5. Drain the pasta and tip onto the crab, toss gently and serve with a sprinkling of roughly chopped parsley and Parmesan.

For a tasty, but naughty alternative, add 50ml cream to enrich the sauce!
A great addition to this dish is asparagus! Snap the stems and cut the asparagus into 2-3cm pieces. Add to the boiling pasta for the last 2 minutes.