Crawfish Fettuccine

in Cajun, Crawfish, Mardi Gras, Pasta, Seafood

Crawfish Fettuccine

Spring is just around the corner! You can tell because we’re already gardening. And swimming. And every restaurant around here without the words “happy meal” or “value size” on their menu has a banner hanging off the front of the building with one single 8-letter word:

CRAWFISH

Crawfish boil

But even better than that? Pulling up to your grocery store and finding a crawfish boil going on right next to the big plastic truck kiddie shopping carts.

Three years ago I swore that I’d never use those things. And then The Little got old enough to realize how “awesome” the carts were and started throwing tantrums. So it was 1) die a little inside and push a kiddie cart or 2) eat a mustard sandwich for dinner.

Crawfish Fettuccine

Mustard sandwiches aren’t nearly as good as Crawfish Fettuccine.

Now, I’ve come to realize that the inventor of those things was a genius. You know what a Terrible Two/Three doesn’t care about? EVERYTHING. As long as they have a shopping cart with a fake steering wheel to keep them busy while you’re digging through the bins trying to find the perfect limes for margaritas.

Even the liquor stores out here have them. God Bless Suburbia.

Crawfish Fettuccine

I picked up a kiddie cart (I’m partial to the black one with flames on the side) and 2.5lbs of already cooked (doesn’t get better than that) crawfish for a couple of dishes, but after my husband finished peeling them (I do not peel crawfish), I only had enough for one.

So I tried to make it count.

I whipped up our favorite (and light!) alfredo sauce and then spiked it with Tobasco and creole mustard. A few simple flavors with a little heat turned into a pretty phenomenal dinner. It wasn’t so spicy that my 3-year old couldn’t eat it but enough to make it not-your-everyday alfredo sauce.

Crawfish Fettuccine

Turn up the heat on a light and flavorful alfredo sauce with hot sauce and crawfish.

Ingredients

  • 8 oz fettuccine noodles, uncooked
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 2 green onions, chopped (dark green parts reserved for garnish)
  • 2/3 cup milk (I use 2%)
  • 3 oz (6 Tbsp) neufchatel
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan
  • 1/2 tsp Tobasco
  • 1 rounded tsp creole mustard (or other deli- or dijon-style mustard)
  • Pepper
  • Salt
  • 12 oz cooked and peeled crawfish tails

Instructions

  1. Cook pasta in salted water per package instructions.
  2. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water and then drain pasta and set aside.
  3. In a sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.
  4. Cook garlic and white and light green parts of the onion just until garlic begins to brown.
  5. Add 1/2 cup reserved pasta water, milk, and cream cheese, stirring until the cream cheese has mostly melted.
  6. Add Parmesan, tobasco, and mustard, stirring until the cheese has melted and the sauce is mostly smooth.
  7. Add cooked pasta and crawfish tails, tossing with tongs or two large spoons to coat.
  8. Add additional splashes of pasta water as necessary while tossing the pasta to smooth the sauce and ensure everything is coated.
  9. Serve immediately.

Notes

Yields: 3-4 servings

Alfredo sauce adapted from The New Way to Cook Light

Estimated time: 30 minutes

9 comments… add one
  • My son loves the kiddie cart as well..its inevitable every time we go to the store now 🙂 This sounds superbulous!!

  • Yummy! I’ve been wanting to drive into Houston to eat some crawfish but my husband is dying to make some ourselves. I’m just not sure if I can put something alive into a boiling pot of water so I might go your route and buy them cooked.

  • Love this gorgeous recipe, and love that I have those kid-friendly shopping carts to look forward to some day. No hope for crawfish around here, but I think I’ll have to try the pasta and sauce anyway. Maybe with shrimp? Those we have TONS of.

  • Lol! Kids love ’em and moms hate ’em because they are so hard to steer! 😉
    This pasta dish looks fabulous!

  • I’m ready for two things: Crawfish & for my little to grow out of that wonky race car shopping cart. He discovered it late in the game. I tried my best! 🙂 darnit!

  • Andrew hasn’t noticed those carts yet. I’m praying he never will.

    Oh, and this looks amazing.

  • Janet Levy

    When you say “neufchatel,” are you referring to the French cheese from Normandy that looks like Camembert or are you using this word in the American sense to mean a lowfat cream cheese product?

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