Crab, Courgette, Tomato Salad with Grana Padano & Crab Paté

10 minutes

Serves 4 Preparation time: 30 minutes; Cooking time: 10 minutes (if you do the pasta); Difficulty: Simple

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Alex Mackay, cook, teacher, writer, and food lover serves up a collection of his recipes made for sharing showing the versatility of Grana Padano PDO cheese. With lite bites to quick pasta: brunch to supper standbys you can find recipes for every occassion this Easter.

This salad and 'pâté' can become delicious chameleons in your kitchen. A bruschetta topping, a salad or a pasta sauce. Crab is a brilliant ingredient, actually 2 ingredients in one, the brown crab meat and Grana Padano become a crab pâté to spread on the bread or the lettuce, or a sauce that binds the pasta to give you a creamy texture, almost like a crab 'cacio e pepe'. It can be a pretty inexact ingredient because the crabs are all different sizes, so don't worry if your quantities of crabmeat are a bit different to mine, it'll still be delicious.

I chose baby plum tomatoes because they consistently have the most concentrated flavour. If you can't get the mixed colours of tomatoes and courgettes, don't worry, it might even be more strikking in the traditional white, red and green of the Italian flag.

Always toss your salads in a shallow dish like I do in the video rather than a bowl, to combine the ingredients quickly and thoroughly without breaking them up. You could have the bread for breakfast, the salad for lunch and the pasta for dinner.

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Method

1. Mix the brown crab meat with the grated Grana Padano, 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and the chilli powder. Set aside.
2. Put the white crab meat, courgette ribbons, halved baby plum tomatoes, Grana Padano shavings and chilli into a large shallow dish. Add the lemon zest and juice. Gently fold the salad together, try not to break up the crab too much. Season to taste with salt and lemon juice. You can add more chilli if you want the mixture spicier.

The Toast
1. Spread the brown crab meat and Grana Padano mixture over some freshly grilled or toasted bread.
2. Top with the salad.
3. Scatter basil leaves over the top.

The Salad
1. Cut romaine hearts or baby gem or endives in half.
2. Spread the brown crab meat and Grana Padano mixture over the cut halves.
3. Top with the salad.
4. Scatter basil leaves over the top.

The Pasta
1. Boil your linguine in salted water according to the instructions on the packet. Scoop out a mugful of the cooking water.
2. Drain the pasta. Return it to the pan. Add 3 tbsp of the pasta cooking water per portion. Toss in the brown crab meat and Grana Padano mixture until the pasta is well coated and creamy, add a little more of the pasta water if you need to.
3. Add the salad. Toss it in just enough to gently warm it through.
4. Scatter the basil leaves over the top.