Crab & Brown Butter Tortellini in Shellfish Consommé

⏱ 180 min · Serves 4

Silky handmade tortellini stuffed with sweet white crab meat, nutty brown butter and lemon, floating in a crystal-clear prawn and crab consommé. It looks like it came from a tasting menu — because, frankly, it should.

Per serving: 610 kcal · 38.0g protein · 45.0g carbs · 30.0g fat

Ingredients

• For the pasta: 200g '00' flour
• 2 whole eggs plus 4 egg yolks
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Pinch of fine salt
• For the filling: 80g unsalted butter
• 250g white crab meat, picked
• 50g brown crab meat
• 1 tbsp mascarpone
• Zest of 1 lemon plus 1 tsp juice
• 1 tbsp finely chopped chives
• Pinch of cayenne
• Salt and white pepper
• For the consommé: 600g raw shell-on prawns (or 800g crab shells)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 fennel bulb, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 100ml dry white vermouth
• 1.5 litres cold water
• 2 strips lemon peel
• 2 egg whites, for clarifying
• To finish: 20g cold butter
• Chervil or micro fennel
• Good olive oil

Method

1. Make the pasta: mound the flour, add eggs, yolks, oil and salt, and work to a firm dough. Knead 10 minutes until smooth, wrap and rest 1 hour at room temperature.
2. Peel the prawns, reserving heads and shells (keep the meat for another dish or chop into the filling). Roast the shells in oil in a wide pan over high heat until deep orange and fragrant, about 5 minutes, crushing them with a spoon.
3. Add onion, fennel, carrot and garlic; soften 8 minutes. Stir in tomato purée, cook 2 minutes, deglaze with vermouth and reduce by half.
4. Add the cold water and lemon peel, bring barely to a simmer and cook gently 45 minutes, skimming. Never boil. Strain through muslin and chill until cold.
5. Clarify: whisk the egg whites into the cold stock, set over low heat and bring slowly to 85°C without stirring. A raft will form; ladle the clear liquid out through muslin. Season lightly — it should taste of pure shellfish.
6. Brown the butter until nut-brown and smelling of hazelnuts; cool to room temperature. Fold 50g into the white and brown crab with mascarpone, lemon zest and juice, chives, cayenne, salt and white pepper. Chill 30 minutes; reserve the remaining brown butter.
7. Roll the pasta to the thinnest setting. Cut 7cm rounds, pipe a teaspoon of filling into each, brush edges with water, fold into half-moons pressing out all air, then wrap the corners around your fingertip and pinch. You want 24–28 tortellini.
8. Bring the consommé to a bare simmer. Cook the tortellini in a separate pan of well-salted water for 2–3 minutes, until they float and the pasta is silky.
9. Whisk the cold butter into the hot consommé for a faint sheen. Divide 6–7 tortellini per warm bowl, pour the consommé at the table, and finish with the reserved brown butter, chervil and a drop of olive oil.