Jazzy Crawfish Pasta
In case you missed my tweets yesterday, the 2012 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival daily schedules have been posted. The lineup is crazy good this year. Almost as crazy good as this Jazzy Crawfish Pasta–my take on Crawfish Monica. Crawfish Monica has been a festival-goer favorite for some 30 years now. It consists of a mesmerizing bowl of rotini pasta drenched in a deliciously spicy crawfish cream sauce. This dish became so popular at Jazz Fest that back in 2009, its creator Chef Pierre Hilzim (who named the seafood specialty after his wife Monica) trademarked the name and began commercially producing and selling a heat-and-serve version through Kajun Kettle Foods. But that hasn’t stopped the masses, including me, from trying to recreate that Jazz Fest experience in their own kitchens. My frequent visits to the Crawfish Monica food booth have helped me break down that highly guarded recipe to what I believe to be a basic heavy cream reduction enriched with butter, Creole seasonings and, of course, crawfish tails. Be careful if you decide to use light cream or half-and-half in place of the heavy cream. Those less-fat substitutes are prone to separate and curdle. If you go that route, you may want to add a little of the pasta water or a flour or cornstarch slurry to the pot. The starch will help stabilize the sauce.
Jazzy Crawfish Pasta Recipe
Print Recipe
1 pound rotini pasta
1 stick unsalted butter
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 quart heavy cream
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound frozen crawfish tails, thawed and undrained
Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside. In a large saute pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add green onions and garlic; cook until tender, 2-3 minutes. Stir in heavy cream and next seven ingredients (through cayenne pepper); bring to a strong simmer. Cook, stirring frequently, until cream is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden, 5-7 minutes. Fold crawfish tails and cooked pasta into cream sauce; cook until warmed through, about 2 more minutes. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir and serve. Makes 6-8 servings.
Genêt
