Nigella Lawson Crab Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Nigella Lawson’s crab mac ‘n’ cheese is a luxurious pasta of shell pasta in a smoky Gruyère cheese sauce studded with white and brown crab meat. It’s a rich but delicate dish for 2, from her book Cook, Eat, Repeat.

She calls it the most luscious of treats, rich yet somehow delicate, like a cross between a mac ‘n’ cheese and a bisque. Smoked paprika and a 50/50 mix of white and brown crab meat give an almost honeyed depth to the velvety, nutty-sweet Gruyère sauce.

Nigella strays from tradition in two ways that matter. She uses pasta shells rather than macaroni, so the sauce pools inside them, and she sternly advises against baking it under a cheesy top, finishing instead with a freckling of Aleppo pepper for warmth.

Nigella Lawson Crab Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

675

kcal

Total time

30

minutes

Nigella’s grown-up pasta from Cook, Eat, Repeat: shell pasta in a smoky, tomato-tinged Gruyère sauce with white and brown crab meat, finished with Aleppo pepper. Serves two.

Ingredients

• 100g Gruyère cheese

• 15g or 2 x 15ml tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

• 15g or 1½ x 15ml tablespoons plain flour

• ¼ teaspoon ground mace

• ¼ teaspoon smoked sweet paprika

• ⅛ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or hot smoked paprika, plus more to sprinkle

• 250ml full-fat milk

• 1 x 15ml tablespoon tomato purée

• 30g or 2 x 15ml tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1 fat clove of garlic

• ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

• 200g conchiglie rigate pasta

• 100g mixed white and brown crab meat (50/50)

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Directions

• Prep:Grate the Gruyère into a bowl and mix in the Parmesan. Mix the flour with the mace, smoked paprika and Aleppo pepper in a cup. Stir the tomato purée into the milk in a jug. Put a pan of water on to boil.
• Start the roux:In a smallish heavy saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and grate in the garlic, stirring quickly. Turn to medium, add the flour and spices, and whisk until it coheres into an orange, fragrant, foaming paste, about a minute.
• Make the sauce:Off the heat, gradually whisk in the tomatoey milk until completely smooth, scraping down the sides. Return to medium heat and cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes, until thickened with no floury taste. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce.
• Add the cheese:Off the heat, stir in the grated cheeses until glossy. Cover the pan and leave off the heat while you cook the pasta.
• Cook the pasta:Salt the boiling water, add the pasta and cook to just al dente, starting to check a couple of minutes early.
• Combine:Add the crab to the sauce, then lift the just-cooked shells in with a spider (reserving some pasta water) or drain and add. Stir over low heat until the crab is hot, loosening with pasta water if you like. Taste for salt.
• Serve:Divide between two small shallow bowls and sprinkle with Aleppo pepper or hot smoked paprika.

Notes

• (don’t brown it): Nigella advises sternly against scattering more cheese on top and browning it in the oven. A freckling of Aleppo pepper more than makes up for the familiar heat-scorched finish.
• (seafood nachos): Bump the milk in the sauce up to 300ml and it makes sensational seafood nachos: warm tortilla chips in the oven, pour the sauce over, and top with sliced red chillies and chopped chives.
• (salt): Crab meat from tubs tends to be quite salty already, so taste before adding salt; crab from the fishmonger may need more.
• (make ahead): Make the cheese sauce (without the crab) up to 1 day ahead. Press baking parchment onto the surface and refrigerate. Reheat gently until piping hot, cook the pasta and continue as directed. Best eaten freshly made.

FAQs

Why use crab and smoked paprika together?

It’s the pairing that makes this more than a fancy mac ‘n’ cheese. The 50/50 mix of sweet white and rich brown crab meat, with smoked paprika running through the sauce, gives an almost honeyed, savoury depth that Nigella likens to a bisque. The brown meat especially melts into the sauce and deepens it.

Using both kinds of crab is worth it, since the white brings delicate sweetness and texture while the brown brings the intense, savoury flavour. Add the crab near the end and just heat it through, rather than cooking it hard, so it stays tender and doesn’t toughen or lose its sweetness.

Why shells instead of macaroni?

Nigella deliberately uses conchiglie rigate, ridged pasta shells, rather than traditional macaroni. The cupped, ridged shells catch and hold the smoky, crab-studded sauce, so you get a proper pool of it in every mouthful, which suits this rich, saucy dish better than small macaroni.

Any large shell shape works if you can’t find conchiglie rigate. Cook the pasta to just al dente, checking a couple of minutes before the packet time, since it finishes in the sauce. Lifting the shells straight into the sauce with a spider carries a little starchy water across, which helps it cling.

Why does Nigella say not to bake it?

This is a stovetop mac ‘n’ cheese, and she advises sternly against the usual step of topping it with more cheese and browning it in the oven. Baking would firm up the delicate sauce and toughen the crab, losing the silky, saucy, bisque-like quality that’s the whole appeal.

Instead, the finish comes from a freckling of Aleppo pepper (or paprika) sprinkled over at the table, which gives a gentle, fruity warmth in place of the browned, heat-scorched crust. Serve it straight from the pan into warm bowls while the sauce is loose and glossy. It’s meant to be eaten freshly made.

What is mace and Aleppo pepper, and can I swap them?

Mace is the lacy outer coating of the nutmeg seed, warmer and more savoury than nutmeg itself, and it gives the cheese sauce a classic, gently spiced background. If you only have nutmeg, use a little less, since it’s slightly stronger. Aleppo pepper is a mild, fruity, sun-dried chilli flake with a gentle warmth.

Nigella offers hot smoked paprika as the swap for Aleppo pepper, both for seasoning the sauce and sprinkling at the end, so use that if it’s easier to find. The sweet smoked paprika in the sauce is separate and does the smoky heavy lifting, so keep that. Together the spices are what lift it above an ordinary cheese sauce.

How do I keep the sauce silky and get the consistency right?

Two things: make a smooth roux and don’t overheat the cheese. Whisk the milk into the flour paste gradually and off the heat so it stays lump-free, then cook it out for 3 to 5 minutes until it loses any floury taste. Stir the grated cheese in off the heat, so it melts glossily rather than splitting.

The sauce should be loose enough to coat the shells generously, so add as much of the reserved pasta-cooking water as you need to keep it fluid. It thickens as it stands, so err on the looser side. It’s a smoky, seafood cousin of Nigella’s green pasta with blue cheese, another off-the-heat sauce.

Can I make it ahead, and what do I serve with it?

The sauce is the make-ahead here. You can make the cheese sauce, without the crab, up to a day ahead, pressing baking parchment onto the surface to stop a skin forming, then refrigerate. Reheat it gently until piping hot, cook the pasta fresh and add the crab, since the finished dish is best eaten freshly made.

It’s rich, so a sharp green salad is the classic thing to serve alongside and cut through it. For another quick seafood supper from the same book, Nigella’s fear-free fish stew is a lighter option, and there’s more on the Nigella Lawson recipes page.