Gambero Rosso crushes the blue crab

2023-09-06 11:43:02

Time.news – What does blue crab taste like? That of “a missed lobster” or one that “didn’t make it” to become one. The question and answer is Gambero Rosso in one unprecedented stripping of the crustacean of the summer of 2023, which has invaded seas, lagoons, rivers and even lakes, that of Massaciuccoli according to the chronicles, devouring all kinds of fish.

The editors of the sophisticated gourmet magazine have in fact granted themselves or “given themselves” a break from the intense summer work with a spaghettone with blue shellfish of the moment by the sea. And they observe: “The pasta is served well cooked, sautéed with cherry tomato, an excellent spicy oil and generous doses of the invader of the Italian coasts, who loves clams and enjoys embroidering the fishermen’s and farms’ nets with his long claws”, explains the article, “the veins are typically bluish” but “the taste?”. Yes, and the taste?

And here is the result of the unprecedented gourmet tasting: “Basically, blue crab tastes low”, the first note, even if “the memory is distantly linked to the sweetness of the lobster”, however “the intensity is decidedly lower, as is its texture, more frayed and less meaty”. Point. Then follow a series of annotations: “The sapidity is whispered, the marine echo is very subtle”. In short, “we enjoy, with a certain pleasure, an excellent spaghetti with tomato sauce with a ‘memory’ of the sea, probably due to the very little white and delicate pulp that the crustacean offers”.

Conclusion? “Here”, writes the reviewer, “we need to be patient and on the subject of pairings” the blue crab “we see it more next to rich salads than on first courses”.

To close the article, however, here is the judgment of an expert, Maurizio Criscuolo, owner of the Jolly Lido and Osteria Nuova in Anzio, according to whom “a first distinction must be made between the blue crabs of the Adriatic and those of the Tyrrhenian”, because “the former have a rather small size while those from the Tyrrhenian Sea have a much more intense and interesting flavour”. The former cost around 5 euros, the latter around 13 per kilo, reports the restaurateur. Even the seas and waters have their reason.