crab cappelletti
My boyfriend and I have a Christmas tradition, every year when it gets close to the holiday we make fresh pasta. We both love to cook so we try to make a project out of it. In 2021 we made a lasagna with basil and pesto pasta sheets, in 2022 we settled on a porcini powder filled gnocchi. and in 2023 I was inspired by a Thomas Straker Tik Tok that I watched 100 times because he didn’t write a recipe, and we went with Crab Cappelletti!
Cappelletti is named after their shape, it means little hat in Italian - so cute! These are filled with fresh crab, lemon zest, and mascarpone. The sauce a heavily reduced seafood based broth that you make yourself using the shells of the crab!
This quickly became one of my most popular recipes with over 2 million views on tik tok, and its not hard to see why. Its a perfect example of a dish that looks way harder to make than it actually is.
INGREDIENTS
-Whole cooked dungeness crab (about 1-2lbs)
-1/3 cup tomato paste
-3 tbsp fennel seeds
-2 small carrots, roughly chopped
-3 shallots, peeled and quartered
-1/4 bulb of fennel
-Dry white wine (almost whole bottle)
-4 cups fish stock
-1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan
-2 bulbs confit garlic
-Zest of a whole lemon
-1/2 tbsp Aleppo pepper (can used crushed red pepper, just be cautious of how spicy you like it)
-4 oz mascarpone
-Approx 1 lb of fresh pasta dough (I used an NYT cooking recipe)
-1/4 cup heavy cream
-1.5 tbsp butter
-1/2 cup torn basil
DIRECTIONS
CRAB STOCK
1. Take apart crab and carefully separate the shell from the meat - double check the meat for extra pieces of shell as it will get mixed with the pasta filling
2. Heat olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven and add crab shells, cook down and smash for a minute or so then add tomato paste
3. Stir til tomato paste darkens in color then add fennel seeds, carrots, carrots, shallots, and fennel bulb
4. Add almost entire bottle of white wine, cook down and reduce for about 5 min then pour in the fish stock
5. Bring to a boil then lower heat to simmer, let simmer and reduce for about 3 hours, adding water if reducing too fast
6. After three hours, strain twice and set aside for finishing
FILING
1. Mix crab meat with parmesan, garlic confit, lemon zest, aleppo, and mascarpone
2. Fill piping bag with mixer
ASSEMBLY
1. Roll out your pasta dough into thin sheets
2. Cut out circles with cookie cutter
3. Add filing to each circler
4. Form cappelletti - fold pasta in half, press firmly and make sure youre pressing the air out
5. Hold upside down so edge folds under itself and push down into the middle of the filling to make an indent
6. Bring two points together and overlap and press firmly to seal - I used this website’s instructions
TO FINISH
1. Bring large pot of water to boil
2. While its boiling, pour the crab stock into a large sauce pan and begin to boil and reduce
3. Once its reduced by half and pasta water is boiling, start cooking the cappelletti (should only take a couple minutes)
4. Add heavy cream and butter into reduced stock
5. Add cappelletti to sauce stir to combine, add basil and stir to combine again, then serve immediately
NOTES
* When taking apart crab be very careful to separate the shells from the meat, you don’t want any pieces of shell to get lost in your filling
* You want the crab stock to reduce for at least three hours, if you notice the water level get too low too fast just add more water to it, you should have at least 4 cups when it done
* Taste the crab stock as you cook it, you want to be able to get the flavors from the crab and aromatics but be very careful when adding salt - you will be reducing the broth to half its volume at the last step so its best to wait to add salt until then.
* I’m using pastry bags and a pasta maker because I have them but you don’t need fancy equipment to make this, pastry bag can be replaced with a big zip lock bag with the corner snipped and instead of a pasta maker just use a rolling pin!
Watch the Tik Tok here!