Cookbook

Mario Batali
Simple Italian Food

serves 4

Cleaned cooked crawfished meat is available in fancy fish stores throughout the summer, but it is definitely better if you boil and peel the crawfish yourself. For this dish I prefer lemon basil, which adds an almost Southeast Asian shrimp or lobster meat can also stand in for the crawfish meat.

5 pounds crawfish, boiled, cooled, and tail meat removed (1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded, and julienned
1 pound very ripe plum tomatoes
1 pound fresh pappardelle
1/4 fresh lemon basil leaves, lightly packed
zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

Pick through the crawfish and discard any shell bits

Bring about 6 quarts of water to a boil and add about 2 tablespoons salt.

In a 12 to 14 inch sate pan, heat the olive oil until almost smoking over medium heat. Add the garlic and jalapenos and cook until the garlic is light golden brown, about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, trim off the stem ends from the tomatoes and cut into 3/4 inch cubes. Add the tomatoes to the pan with garlic and chiles and cook until soft and beginning to get saucy, 8 to 10 minutes. Lower the heat to a simmer while you cook the pasta.

Drop the pappardelle into the boiling water and cook until tender, about 2 minutes. Drain the pasta. Toss the crawfish meat into the tomato sauce, add the pappardelle, and toss to coat well over low heat. Add the lemon basil and lemon zest, season to taste with salt and pepper, toss again, and serve immediately.