Crawfish Dip with Fried Bow Tie Pasta

Forget the chips. Fried pasta makes a wonderful substitute!

Prep/Cook: 45 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

Crawfish Dip

• 1 cup water
• 1 (1 ounce) package dried porcini mushrooms
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 bunch green onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 pound cooked crawfish tail meat
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley

Fried Bow Tie Pasta

• 8 ounces hot cooked bow tie pasta
• 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3 tablespoons Creole seasoning
• Peanut oil, for frying

Instructions

Crawfish Dip

1. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, heat 1 cup water in the microwave on HIGH until very hot. Add mushrooms, and let stand 15 minutes or until mushrooms soften.
2. Strain mushrooms through a fine-mesh sieve. Reserve liquid, and finely chop mushrooms.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add green onion, and cook about 3 minutes or until softened. Stir in flour; cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add chopped mushrooms, reserved mushroom liquid, and garlic; bring to a low boil.
5. Stir in crawfish, salt and peppers; cook for 5 minutes more.
6. Reduce heat to low; stir in sour cream and parsley.
7. Serve warm with Fried Bow Tie Pasta.

Fried Bow Tie Pasta

1. Arrange pasta in a single layer over paper towels to remove any remaining water. In a large bowl, combine pasta, cornmeal, and Creole seasoning, tossing well to coat.
2. In a large pot or Dutch oven, pour oil to a depth of 2 inches; heat over medium-high heat until a candy or deep-fry thermometer reads 375 degrees F.
3. Shake excess cornmeal mixture from pasta, and add in small batches to hot oil; cook for 4 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Remove pasta to a paper-towel-lined baking sheet to drain. Pasta will keep up to 1 week in an airtight container.

Notes

When you're working through that mountain of boiled crawfish, don't eat the straight ones—they weren't alive when they went into the boiling pot.

Attribution

Recipe and photo used with permission from: Louisiana Seafood
Photo credit: Hoffman Media