Swedish Crayfish Pasta with Saffron & Fennel
A bright, late-summer seafood pasta: sweet crayfish tails and a delicate saffron-tomato sauce with fennel and leek, tossed through wholegrain pasta. Lighter than the classic, with a fraction of the cream but all of the flavour.
Best for seafood · late-summer dinner · lighter comfort
This is Sweden's beloved crayfish-season pasta, tidied up for everyday eating. Leek and fennel soften with fresh chilli and a pinch of saffron until sweet and fragrant, then tomatoes and a splash of stock cook down into a light, golden sauce. The original leans on a couple of decilitres of cream; here it's cut right back and loosened instead with a little starchy pasta water, so the sauce still coats every strand without weighing it down. Delicate crayfish tails go in at the very end so they stay plump and sweet, and a shower of dill and parmesan finishes it. Wholegrain pasta keeps it satisfying. It tastes like summer.
Ingredients
- 320 g wholegrain pasta , spaghetti or linguine
- 200 g crayfish tails , cooked, drained (or cooked prawns)
- 1 leek , trimmed and thinly sliced
- 1 Fennel bulb , thinly sliced
- 250 g cherry tomatoes , halved
- 1 red chilli , finely chopped
- 15 ml rapeseed or olive oil , 1 tbsp
- 1 saffron , a pinch (1 sachet)
- 100 ml vegetable stock , or 100 ml white cooking wine (as in the original); the alcohol cooks off
- 150 ml light cooking cream , or light crème fraîche
- 1 lemon , juice of half
- 3 g fine sea salt , to taste
- 1 g black pepper , freshly ground
- 10 g Fresh dill , chopped, to serve
- 25 g Parmesan , finely grated, to serve
Instructions
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1
Cook the wholegrain pasta in well-salted water until al dente, then drain, reserving about a cupful of the pasta water. Let the crayfish tails drain well.
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2
Meanwhile, thinly slice the leek and fennel, halve the tomatoes and finely chop the chilli.
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3
Heat the oil in a large pan and gently fry the leek, fennel, chilli and saffron over medium heat until softened and fragrant.
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4
Add the stock (or wine) and the tomatoes with the salt, and let it bubble until the tomatoes start to collapse into a sauce.
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5
Stir in the light cream and let it come together into a glossy sauce, loosening with a splash of the reserved pasta water. Stir in the lemon juice and taste for salt and pepper.
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6
Turn off the heat, fold in the crayfish tails and the drained pasta, and gently warm through so the crayfish stay plump and sweet — don't let it boil hard.
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7
Serve straight away, topped with grated parmesan and plenty of chopped fresh dill.