Crab and Cucumber Linguine

Many of you know that I like cutting edge cuisine and that I have a bit of a fascination with it. But aside from foams, gels and "airs", I like simple stuff, too. This dish is a simple, yummy plate of food. It would not have been had I used second-rate crab meat; it's the main ingredient. There is simply nowhere to hide.

I added some garlic and the zest of the lemons along with everything else and finished it with a garlic and chile-infused olive oil. Great interplay between the citrusy and fresh lemon with the chile heat and good crab meatiness. I had leftover dill and used that, which brought an added lift. Quick to throw together, too!

400 g Iinguine
1 teaspoon dried red chilli flakes or 2 fresh red chillies
1 small or 1/2 large cucumber
2 large dressed crabs and 6 large claws, yielding about 250g brown meat and 200g white
juice and zest 2 large lemons
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley or dill
6-8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put a large saucepan of water on to boil. Cook the pasta until it is al dente, then drain and return to the saucepan. Meanwhile, place the chile flakes in an egg cup, just cover with boiling water and leave for a few minutes until soft. If using fresh chillies, trim and split them, scraping away the seeds. Slice into skinny strips and then into tiny dice.

Remove the skin from the cucumber with a potato peeler. Split it in half lengthways and use a teaspoon to scrape out the seeds and their watery surround. Thinly slice the cucumber into half moons. In a bowl, mix together the drained chile flakes or fresh chile, garlic, dressed crab, juice and zest from half of the lemons and the chopped parsley (or dill) and season lightly with salt and generously with pepper. Crack the crab claws and scrape the meat off the flat central 'bone', leaving it in big chunks, directly into the mixture. Slowly stir in 4 tablespoons of the olive oil to make a thick but slack mixture.

Stir the cucumber and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil into the drained pasta, stirring to mix thoroughly and encouraging the cucumber to wilt slightly. Now add the crab mixture, adding more lemon juice or oil to taste. Serve with forks and spoons.