Crab and courgette spaghetti

This reminds me of both Italy and the beautiful Isles of Scilly, where I’ve eaten the tastiest seafood of my life. This dish is speedy but special. When I have friends coming over, it is a fail-safe meal that looks and tastes impressive but is ready in a flash, so I can relax and spend time with my loved ones. Good-quality crab meat is expensive but a little goes a long way. I find this combination of three parts white crab meat to one part brown goes down a treat.

15 MINUTES | SERVES 4 | EASY |

spaghetti 400g butter or olive oil 3 tbsp, plus extra to finish (optional)

spring onions 4, finely sliced

garlic 3 big cloves, finely chopped

red chilli 1, deseeded if you prefer, and finely sliced, or a good pinch of dried chilli flakes, plus extra to serve (optional)

courgettes 2 medium (400g), roughly grated

British crab meat 200g (150g white and 50g brown meat)

flat-leaf parsley a big handful, finely chopped

lemon 1, juiced to make 21/2 tbsp, plus 1/2 tsp grated zest

parmesan grated to make a handful, to serve (optional)

1 Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti following pack instructions – I cook it for just under a minute less than the specified time. Drain, reserving a mug of the cooking water.

2 Once the spaghetti is in the pot, heat the butter in a large, deep frying pan over a medium heat, and stir-fry the spring onions, garlic and chilli for 2 minutes until the garlic is softened but not brown. Add the courgettes and seasoning, turn up the heat, mix and fry for 4 minutes, stirring, until the courgette liquid evaporates.

3 Take off the heat and stir in the crab meat, parsley, lemon juice and zest. Quickly add the spaghetti to the crab pan, adding half a mug of the pasta cooking water and gently toss to get a beautiful glossy sheen. Add more of the cooking water if needed to loosen. Add an extra drizzle of olive oil or knob of butter, if you like.

4 Taste for seasoning and serve straight away with some extra chilli or black pepper and the grated parmesan, if using.

PER SERVING 530 kcals | fat 12.3G | saturates 6.4G carbs 77.2G | sugars 4.6G | fibre 5.9G | protein 24.6G | salt 0.6G low cal | low salt