Melissa Martin’s crawfish fettuccine is a lighter, quicker version of their Bayou Fettucini that eliminates processed cheese. The best method for making a perfect fettuccine is to follow the Italian way, tossing the pasta with some of its cooking water on warm platters to make a quick, velvety sauce. Adding crawfish tails and Parmesan cheese makes a filling recipe. It’s a good way to use up those extra tails from a crawfish boil, and it feeds a crowd, too. This pasta with all its cheese and butter goes well with a bitter, acidic green salad to help cut the fat.
recipe 
yields
Serves 8-10
2 pounds crawfish tails and fat, peeled, boiled, then rested at room temperature
Kosher salt
Cracked black pepper
Cayenne pepper
Hot sauce, preferably Original Louisiana Hot Sauce
1 pound quality fettuccine noodles, dried or fresh
8 ounces butter, cut into 10 square flat pieces
8 ounces Parmesan, freshly grated
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
¼ cup green onions, finely chopped
Ingredients
steps
- Place a large platter, casserole dish, or cast-iron skillet in the oven on the warming setting; the dish should be warm enough to melt butter but not warm enough to cook food.
- Taste the crawfish: Does it need more salt? More pepper or heat? Add salt, black pepper, cayenne, or hot sauce to your liking. Boiled crawfish tails are usually seasoned already and do not need additional seasoning, but peeled crawfish tails from a store will need doctoring up.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add enough salt (about 2 tablespoons) so that the water tastes as salty as the sea, then cook the fettuccine according to the package directions. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup (240 ml) of the cooking water.
- Scatter the butter in the warm platter. Add the fettuccine and top with the Parmesan. Using tongs, quickly combine the fettuccine, butter, and Parmesan, thoroughly lifting and folding the pasta and adding ¼ to ½ cup (60 to 120 ml) of the reserved cooking water until a beautiful velvety sauce forms. Add more cooking water if needed. Once the sauce has coated the pasta, stir in the crawfish and season to taste. Serve immediately, garnished with the parsley and green onions.
Date Published: 09.16.24
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Recipe Excerpted from
Bayou by Melissa Martin (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2024. -
Contributing City
Austin
