I'M forever looking for new ways to cook soft-shell crabs. So when the splendid Los Angeles chef and radio host Evan Kleiman mentioned to me that she served soft-shells on top of pasta, I thought, “Yes, well, that's obvious enough - once a good cook mentions it to you!” Then I got to work. There are three fantastic aspects to soft-shell crabs: they're crunchy, they're moist, and their flavor is wonderful. No matter how you cook them, all you really want to do is avoid robbing them of these properties. The easiest way to do that and build on Evan's idea (she never gave me an actual recipe), I decided, would be a slow poach in olive oil. In essence, what you're doing here is making pasta with garlic and oil (chili flakes are traditional in this recipe, and good), with the addition of soft-shell crabs. To retain the tenderness and sweetness of the garlic (don't brown it, or it will become bitter), as well as exploit the crabs' liquid in making the sauce, keep the heat low after adding them, and cover the pot as well. Before too long, the crabs will plump and firm up, turn red, and yield their liquid. Toss them with the pasta and you're done. The same procedure works perfectly with shrimp, which also throw off a lot of liquid as they cook. And they're a little bit faster. Start with around 12 large shrimp (if they're huge, four or six are probably enough), and cook them precisely as you would the crabs, figuring 5 to 10 minutes less time and judging the pasta cooking time accordingly. – NYT __
