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This crab pasta in a simple lemon butter sauce with garlic and white wine is one of the quickest and tastiest recipes you can whip up with minimal ingredients and loads of flavour!
If you are a seafood lover, try our Shrimp Scampi Linguine, which is just as quick and delicious.
Crab linguine
If you travel around Italy, you’ll discover seafood pasta a favourite. Although many of us will quickly think of classic Frutti di Mare from Venice, the long coast of Italy means that there are innumerable seafood pasta recipes to draw inspiration from.
One thing that these seafood dishes have in common is that most use long pasta shapes, like the This is an affiliate link.linguine I’ve chosen here. Long pasta strands are also ideal for coating with the oil and flavour from seafood, making for a more enjoyable experience.
For this recipe, I’ve gone with crab. Although you can enjoy crab all year round, the end of summer is the time it’s most abundant! There are so many ways to cook with it but adding crab to pasta dishes has got to be my favourite.
Crab meat is so good for this recipe because you don’t need a lot to add plenty of flavour, which is great news since it can be pricey.
This pasta recipe made with linguine and cooked crab is one of the simplest and speediest dishes you will make. I love having a large arsenal of quick recipes at my disposal in the summer because I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen for long when it’s so lovely out!
Crab Recipes
Another family favourite made with crab that is equally speedy is a stunning hot crab and roasted corn dip. Perfect for dunking!
And of course crab cakes are a classic for a reason. As a bonus, they can be easily converted into a whole new meal as crab cake sandwiches.
However, if you are up for a little challenge, make my luxurious seafood lasagna. The recipe uses a variety of seafood, crab included, a luscious béchamel sauce and fresh lasagna pasta sheets. Pure indulgence!
And for even more pasta ideas, check out crab mac and cheese!
Now let’s talk about this crab linguine cooked with lemon, garlic, butter, a touch of white wine and This is an affiliate link.Parmesan cheese. The simplest ingredients that produce remarkable taste.
Recipe Tips and Notes
- As I mentioned above this recipe uses already prepared fresh crab. However, if you have access to high quality crab, the pasta dish will taste even better if you cook it yourself!
- I used premium quality cooked crab from a deli. You can also use good quality canned crab if it’s easier and more affordable. I am not fussy of what type of crab you will use. King crab, brown crab…basically anything you can afford.
- There is always an option to get imitation crab. I buy it often but I have to admit, as much as I love it, it doesn’t really taste like crab to me. It’s lovely, just not crab.
- The sauce for this pasta is a simple combination of butter, sliced garlic, lemon juice and a little of dry white wine or even rosé wine. I also add a grating of the Parmesan cheese at the end. Traditionally in Italy, cheese is never added to seafood pasta, but I think it works in this dish!
- I cannot emphasise enough that grating This is an affiliate link.Parmesan cheese yourself will make the world of difference. Also you need to grate it finely. Pre-grated stuff will simply not melt into your pasta and will turn clumpy.
- This pasta sauce would taste just as great with shrimp or scallops!
- The whole process takes about 15 minutes. It’s quick, easy and utterly delicious!
Serving Suggestions
If you are wondering what to serve alongside this dish, here are our suggestions.
Try our Tuscan Panzanella Salad as the punchy dressing and ripe tomatoes bring much needed acidity to balance out the richness of the garlic butter sauce of the crab pasta.
Another one is this Warm Zucchini Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette is loaded with flavour packed vegetables and provides another way to use the abundance of the summer zucchini besides zucchini fritters and zucchini bread or muffins.
And of course, nothing goes better with pasta than warm and fresh garlic bread! I made mine in an air fryer to keep it quick and easy and for an amazingly crunchy crust.
Storage and leftovers
Leftovers can be refrigerated in an This is an affiliate link.airtight container for 3-4 days. The simplest way to warm them back up in a microwave.
I don’t recommend freezing pasta dishes. The process of freezing and thawing does the pasta no favours, and can leave it quite soggy.
Favourite Seafood Pasta Recipes to Try
- Cajun Shrimp Pasta
- Creamy Salmon Pasta with Mixed Greens
- Prawn Pasta in Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
- Shrimp Penne alla Vodka
Easy Crab Linguine
Ingredients
- 250g/1/2 lbs linguine, spaghetti or pasta of your choice
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- 75ml/1/3 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 lemon, juice only
- 200g/1 cup ready to eat crab meat
- 50g/1/2 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese, not pre-grated cheese
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the linguine in a large pot of salted, boiling water according to package instructions.
- Five minutes before the pasta is ready, set a large pan over low heat and melt the butter, add sliced garlic and sauté for 1 minute over very low heat without colouring it, then pour in white wine and lemon juice, turn the heat up to medium and let it reduce for a couple of minutes.
- Stir in the cooked crabmeat and take it off the heat. Drain the pasta once cooked and reserve ½ cup of pasta water. Add the pasta to the pan with the crabmeat and toss to combine, add half of the reserved of pasta water and freshly grated Parmesan cheese(not pre-grated), stir over low heat until the cheese melts and coats the pasta. If the pasta is a bit dry add a splash of pasta water. Your pasta dish should be loose but not swimming in sauce, just lightly coated. Salt to taste. Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.
Video
Notes
- I prefer using sliced garlic over pressed garlic in this pasta dish as it gives milder taste and doesn’t overpower the crab.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Delicious recipe!
My wife did not care for the recipe. There is not enough sauce as it quickly gets absorbed by the pasta and does not leave much or any visual sauce. I imagine that the lightly flavored sauce is seasoned so the crab can be the star. One of the problems is the crab is added at the end so it doesn’t not have a chance to meld its flavor into the vanishing sauce or pasta. Totally gets lost. My wife and I agreed it was a waste of good crab. Fortunately we catch crab and they are abundant in our area.
Hi Jim, traditional Italian seafood recipes are not saucy. A quick look at the pictures would tell you that.
Made this tonight w some leftover Dungeness Crab from the Oregon Coast and it was sumptuous and so pleasingly simple. The elegance of simplicity (Marcella Hazan). Thank you!!
Chad Zzzz
Thank you for your review Chad!
Quick, simple and very tasty. Thank you 😀
I don’t understand how the prep on this is 5 minutes. Grating the cheese, slicing the garlic, getting the water to come to a boil. Maybe other people are faster than I am but this doesn’t seem remotely realistic.
Grating 1/2 cup of cheese, slicing garlic and chopping 2 tbsp of parsley does take me 5 minutes. Waiting for the water to boil is accounted for in the cooking time of the recipe. You prepare the sauce at the same time as the water is coming to a boil and most pasta cooks within 7-9 minutes. Combining pasta and the sauce takes about 2 minutes. I hope this helps.
Made it tonight for dinner. I’ve been craving good Linquine with Crab for weeks. I had it at two different restaurants and left disappointed. This dish hit the spot.
I doubled the garlic, and added a bit more parm at the end (with a little bit of pasta water) to make it creamier. It was everything I’ve been dreaming of.
Your recipe is amazing! I made the pasta for dinner last night and it turned out great. Thanks so much for sharing!” 🥰
So light tasting and lovely!!!! We threw on halved cherry tomatoes after which complimented it wonderfully and I used pecorino cheese instead as I prefer the more mild flavor, but otherwise made it as indicated. Will be using this again!!!
Delicious pasta dish! I live in Oregon where dungeness crab is plentiful. The flavor of the crab is inhanced not hidden in this recipe. Plus, it is very easy to make. Cracking the crab took more time than making the recipe.
I am so glad you loved this recipe, Vickie!
I’m so excited to try this!!! Can you tell me if I should drain the canned crab meat?
I’ll let you know the outcome!
I don’t drain mine but it is not very juicy. In either case the liquid will only add more crab flavour.
I don’t know if I didn’t follow the directions correctly or what…but this was horrible. Thank goodness I bought the crab on sale. It was bland and many too many pots to clean, part of the pasta needed to be gluten free. More work than it was worth.
.
Delish! Somehow I had both leftover crab meat and spaghetti noodles. I searched for a recipe and came across this gem. The dish couldn’t have been more perfect. Substituted the lemon with the lime and parmesan with mozzarella, because that’s what I had on hand but it was still amazing. Can’t wait to make it with the right ingredients.
My wife & I liked & enjoyed this dish but for some reason the crab sucked up the cheese causing large lumps of “cheesy crab”. What went wrong? I was thinking the next time I make it I would put the cheese in first and add the crab last.
Hi Mike I am glad you enjoyed it overall. It’s difficult to tell what went wrong with the cheese. I haven’t had this type of feedback before on this recipe. So many factors can affect the final result, the cheese you used, the quantity, how finely it was grated, the temperature (if it was too high, it can lead to clumping). I would suggest watching my video to see the technique I used for this recipe and hopefully it will shed some light on what happened.
Edit: I just realised that if you used pre-grated Parmesan cheese, this would be the culprit. The packaged stuff is mixed with cornstarch, which explains clumping. It will definitely not melt seamlessly into the pasta like the freshly grated Parmesan does.
Loved this recipe. Used chicken broth instead of wine and
Added frozen peas. My husband complimented it several
Times and he is fussy about his pasta.
So pleased you both enjoyed it, Dolly!
This is by far one of the best and easiest pasta dishes ever. My husband needs high protein during chemo,and he could taste it. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure! So glad you enjoyed it!
This was such a quick and easy and fabulous dish. It was a last minute search and I couldn’t have done better. Frozen crab was defrosting, I picked a lemon, had our garlic and wow…what a winner. So happy to find such a great dinner. Thanks for this website. I’ll surely try more.
What a wonderful review! Thank you, Barbara, I am beyond pleased you loved it.
Made this last night and it was so delicious. I added extra clove of garlic because i just love garlic lol. My husband also loved it, he had a second serving. Will definitely add this to my meal rotations.
Excellent! So thrilled you and your husband enjoyed this dish, May!
This is kind of like a Vongole with crab, the one thing I changed and that is only because I used jumbo lumb crab is to add the crab with the hot pasta and toss for the final step so you don’t break up the crab too much, however if you are using more of a shredded crab it’s better to add it early for the flavor it will impart on the sauce.
I also added a dash of chili (I used togarashi) and used a European butter (like Kerrygold) so the sauce would be a little richer and make the sauce a little thicker.
Glad you liked it, Tim. Yes the crab quality will affect the taste and the process. As you can see from the video I added shredded crab, which is still quite pricy. I live in the UK, so European butter is all I have available, so didn’t feel the need to specify that.
When should we add the crab if using uncooked lump meat?
In step 2 after you add the butter.
Excellent and easy, my husband and I loved this. I added crushed red pepper for a little heat.
A truly excellent recipe. Comes together easily in 20 minutes and tastes fantastic. Would recommend for a special dinner.
Thank you for your lovely review Devon.
Beautiful dish. I added some fresh oysters and cream. Came out perfectly.
I love oysters, Kim, I can only imagine how delicious it tasted.
I’d love to serve this for a dinner party of eight. Can this recipe be tripled?
Hi Susan, you can definitely do that but I would recommend using two pans for the recipe as it’s difficult to toss and season so much pasta piled up in one pan.
I just got done stuffing my face. This recipe is sooo easy and delicious!! I used a good heap of jarred minced garlic, also doubled the crab meat. Came out perfect! Bummed no option to add a pic with my comment, but it’s a beautiful dish as well!
Thank you for your review, Ereka! I am sorry there is no option to add a photo on the website but you can always post your beautiful creation to Instagram and tag me @vikalinka!!
Apologies if this double posts, not sure if my original post didn’t go through or if it’s under review…
This recipe is so good!!!! And so easy. Absolutely loved it and will make again
Thank you so much for your comments, Katherine. I appreciate them.
Holy smokes this was so easy and good! I followed it exactly except I sautéed up a diced half sweet onion in the melted butter first, just to get a vegetable involved. We served with roasted brussel sprouts on the side as well. SO GOOD!!! And so easy. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Yes, what a great outcome!! So happy you loved it, Katherine!
We did this tonight, followed the recipe exactly, except had to use canned crab (the crab that didn’t get made into the delicious stuffed mushrooms I was planning over the holidays, damn you Covid!) and added in a few cherry tomatoes. It was delicious! My husband loved it too, we’ll be making it again!
So thrilled you enjoyed this recipe, Lois!! Happy New Year!
Love how fast this dinner comes together! It was so delicious!
This was delicious….pasta and crab meat and butter sauce – what’s not to love?
Exactly! What’s not to love?!! 🙂
This easy crab pasta recipe is so GOOD! Love how delicious this hearty crab pasta recipe is, the ultimate dinner idea.
So pleased you enjoyed it, Valentina!
What if you don’t have white wine can you use anything else to substitute it?
You can use chicken stock but it won’t taste the same.