Recipe From The New Orleans Menu Daily

Crawfish Pasta

This creamy crawfish dish became immensely popular in restaurants and at festivals in the 1980s, when pasta began insinuating itself into otherwise distinctly Creole and Cajun dishes. It's rich and has a complex flavor, and if you can make it with crawfish stock (freeze a bag of crawfish shells for that purpose next time you go to a crawfish boil), it really packs a flavor punch. You can make it mild or spicy, as you like.

2 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 oz. Cognac or brandy
1/2 cup crawfish stock (optional)
1 1/2 Tbs. salt-free Creole seasoning
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dried or fresh tarragon
1 pint whipping cream
2 lb. crawfish tails
1 lb. bowtie or other pasta, cooked al dente and drained

1. Heat the butter till it bubbles in a large stainless-steel skillet. Add the green onions and garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant.

2. Add the Cognac to the pan. Warm it and either boil it off or flame it. (Very carefully.)

3. If you have crawfish stock, add it and bring it to a boil. Reduce it by half.

4. Add the Creole seasoning, salt, tarragon, and cream. Bring the pan to a boil while agitating the contents carefully to blend. Reduce the cream by about a third (about three minutes over medium-high heat). Then add the crawfish tails and cook until heated through.

5. Add the cooked, drained pasta to the pan and toss with the sauce to distribute all the ingredients and sauce uniformly. Serve immediately, garnished with finely-chopped green onions. (Resist the temptation to add Parmesan or Romano cheese.)

Serves four.

Revised 3/29/08


	Click here for an index of all our recipes. Each was developed and tested in our own kitchen--no outside, unchecked recipes. Click here to ask for a recipe or a cooking question.