Penne with Crawfish and Spinach in Parmesan Cream Sauce

Lunch
Dinner
Sauces

My Thoughts

The classic Italian sauce, really Italian-American sauce, gets a southern makeover. A makeover that is even farther south than I am, but for some reason I developed a taste for crawfish and will use any excuse to use them. This sauce is a little bit Italian, a little bit French, and a whole lot of kick! I call this Alfredo sauce, but true Alfredo sauce does not have cream and it has way more Parmesan, but you get the idea. So fire up the stove and get started. C'est bon (that means it's good)!

The How To Do It

  1. Start by thawing your crawfish tails. I follow the instructions on the packaging. If it says to thaw in the refrigerator you can. If you don't have time to thaw them in the refrigerator, then you can thaw them in the sauce, but more about that later.
  2. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. I usually go ahead and great the Parmesan cheese too. You won't need the cheese for a while, but I like to get it taken care of upfront.
  3. Fill a medium/large sauce pot full of water and start the water boiling. Once it is boiling, add a decent amount of salt to the water (about a table spoon).
  4. Melt the butter, in a large saute pan, over medium heat. Once the butter has melted and has stopped bubbling/foaming add the onions and sweat them until they start to get soft. This should take 4-5 minutes.
  5. Once the onions are soft, add the garlic. Saute the garlic for 2-3 minutes. Don't let it brown or it can get bitter.
  6. When the garlic is nice and fragrant, add the wine and cook it down for about 5 minutes. Once it has reduced by about half your ready for the next step.
  7. Now add the dry seasoning mixture (the recipe is below this one) and stir until all the vegetables are coated with the powder. It should make a thick paste with the butter, wine, and vegetables. Continue to stir the mixture for 1-2 minutes to toast the spices slightly.
  8. Now add the cream and stir/whisk until the seasonings combine with the cream.
  9. Once the cream and spices have combined add 1 cup of the Parmesan cheese and stir until it is melted and completely combined with the cream sauce.
  10. Now add the crawfish tail meat. If you did not have time to thaw them in the refrigerator overnight, you can add them to the sauce frozen. It will take longer, but it's not too bad. Add the block of tails to the sauce and start to break apart with a spoon. As they melt they get easier to separate so don't be too aggressive and start ripping the meat apart. The juices that they are packed in will melt pretty quickly.
  11. Heat the carwfish tails to at least 185° F before moving on to the next step.
  12. At this point I usually add the pasta to the boiling water. Cook it according to the packaging but you will want to take it out about a minute early because it will finish cooking in the sauce.
  13. Wash the spinach and let it dry and then place it in the pan. Stir it into the sauce until it is completely wilted.
  14. Once the pasta is done boiling, reserve 3/4 - 1 cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the sauce, I usually only use about 3/4 of the pasta (I like more pasta-to-sauce what can I say).
  15. Add the pasta water and stir to combine the pasta, water, and sauce.
  16. Ladle the sauce into a bowl and sprinkle some of the remaining Parmesan over it.

My Cajun Seasoning

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Use what you need and then store the leftovers in an air tight container (I usually use empty spice bottles).

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Ingredients

Penne with Crawfish in Cajun Alfredo Sauce
1 lbs
crawfish tails
1 lbs
penne pasta
1 sml
white onion
4 cloves
garlic
2 cups
baby spinach
2 cups
heavy cream
1 cup
freshly grated parmesan
1 ½ tbsp
spice mix
Spice Mix
1 tbsp
kosher salt
½ tbsp
black pepper
1 tbsp
granulated garlic
1 tbsp
smoked paprika
1 tsp
ancho chili powder
1 tsp
chipolte chili powder
1 tsp
celery salt
1 tsp
corriander
½ tsp
cayenne pepper
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