Rachel Roddy’s recipe for spaghetti with crab, chilli, herbs and lemon | Food

My copy of the River Cafe Cookbook is silver, having lost its original blue sleeve some years ago. Naked, the hardback cover is completely plain, so it is my handwriting of “River Cafe blue” along the metallic spine, even though there is little chance of mixing it up with the yellow softback River Cafe Cookbook Two or the emerald cover of River Cafe Cookbook Green.

Blue was first published in 1996, a sobering fact, because that’s the same year I enrolled at the Drama Centre London, as well as the year when Pierce Brosnan took on rogue agent Alec Trevelyan (played by Sean Bean) in GoldenEye. That was Brosnan’s debut as James Bond and Dame Judi Dench’s first appearance as M. Brosnan trained at Drama Centre between 1973 and 1976, which is why, when I bought the blue book in 1996, I had good reason to imagine my future career as looking a little like that of Pierce, or Judi, or both.

I had been taken to the River Cafe for lunch, which is why, in an attempt to relive even a fraction of the experience, I bought myself a copy of that book. Like the bold lines and delicate wriggling menu of the restaurant itself, the book, with its bold print, panels of colour and moving photographs, felt shocking. As did the recipes, which seemed both near and completely out of reach. Some remained out of reach, while others completely changed the way I cook, and remain favourites to this day.

One of the first things I made was linguine with crab, although not as the book suggests by boiling two large male crabs, but with ready-prepared crab from a fishmonger on Camden High Street. I then got into the habit of making my adapted version with tinned white crab meat and two anchov fillets, which is arguably another recipe altogether, although my version very much depends on the genius River Cafe way of making an electric sauce of olive oil, minced red chilli and parsley, garlic and lemon, which sends shock waves through the crab and helps it cling to the strands of pasta. The book suggests using linguine, but I like spaghetti here, too; alternatively, fresh tagliolini, which cooks in a fraction of the time.

A key aspect of this recipe is reducing the garlic to a paste by using the flat side of a large knife and a little salt for grip, then adding this paste gradually, to gauge both the strength of the garlic and the right amount to use. The following recipe makes enough for two.

Warm bowls are also important for this dish. Once you have divided the pasta between two bowls, make sure you share the juices, too, and maybe use a spatula to scrape off any parsley that’s stuck to the sides of the bowl. Finish each bowl with a little extra-virgin olive oil.

Spaghetti with crab, chilli, herbs and lemon

Serves 2

1 small red chilli
1 small bunch of parsley
1 small garlic clove, peeled
Salt
6 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for serving
Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon, plus 1-3 tsp juice
120-150g white and brown crab meat, fresh or tinned.
1-2 anchovies (if you don’t have brown crab meat), finely minced
220g spaghetti, linguine or tagliolini

Bring a large pan of water to a boil for the pasta. Meanwhile, mince the red chilli and parsley. Sprinkle the peeled garlic clove with a pinch of salt, then use the flat side of a large knife to squash it to a paste.

Ladle a bit of the boiling water into a big bowl, swish it so it warms the bowl, then discard the water. Put the chilli, parsley, half the garlic, the olive oil, and the lemon zest and juice zest into the bowl and mix.

Add salt to the boiling water, stir, then add the pasta and cook according to the packet instructions until al dente.

Meanwhile, add the white and brown crab meat (plus the minced anchovies, if using) to the bowl and mix. Leave it to sit for a minute, then taste and add more salt and the rest of the garlic, if you think needs it.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain into a colander then tip into the crab bowl (or use a slotted spoon or spider to lift the pasta directly into the sauce). Mix vigorously, then serve with a little extra olive oil.