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¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter,

melted

If you get the chance to go crabbing and have yourself a good day, you’re going to be in the enviable position of having a ton of crabmeat on your hands. That is the perfect time to pull out this recipe. Everyone loves mac-and-cheese, but adding sweet crabmeat—that’s just ridiculously awesome. My secret for making this dish extra flavorful is to cook the pasta in the same water as I cooked the crab. As the pasta cooks, it absorbs the crab “stock,” which then flavors the pasta from within.

SERVES 4 TO 6

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with butter. Fill the sink with ice water.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the crabs. Once the water has returned to a boil, cook the crabs for 14 to 18 minutes. (Cook crabs that weigh around 2 pounds each, as most do, for about 14 minutes. Increase the cooking time by a few minutes if your crabs are larger.) While they cook, grate the cheddar and set aside. Using a pair of sturdy tongs, pull the crabs out of the cooking water and chill them in the ice water. Strain the crab cooking water through a colander, return it to the pot, and return to a boil.

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter and add the shallots. Cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the flour gradually and reduce the heat to low. Keep cooking and stirring the roux until it starts to smell nutty, about 5 minutes. Gradually add the milk while continuing to stir. Increase the heat to medium high and add the bay leaves, paprika, saffron, tomato paste, cayenne, and mustard. Simmer gently until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Add the reserved cheese and cook until it has melted into the sauce. Taste for seasoning, then cover and set aside while you clean and crack the crabs.14

Cook the pasta in the strained crab cooking water until it is al dente, drain, and transfer to a bowl. Stir the pasta and crabmeat into the sauce. Put this heart-stoppingly delicious concoction into the baking dish.

In a medium bowl, mix the panko with the lemon zest, parsley, and melted butter. Top the pasta with the panko mixture and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the mac-and-cheese is bubbly and browned on the top.

PAIRING: A California chardonnay, such as Lioco 2007, Sonoma County, or a white Burgundy.

dungeness crab with bacon-cider sauce

1 pound Dungeness crabmeat

4 strips good-quality bacon,

cut into small dice

1 apple, such as Gala or Granny

Smith, sliced horizontally into

four ⅓-inch slices through the

core (remove the seeds with

the tip of a knife, leaving the

pretty star pattern)

⅓ cup small-diced onion

Pinch of salt

½ cup dry white wine

⅓ cup clam juice

¼ cup apple juice or cider

Heaping ¼ teaspoon freshly

ground pepper

1 teaspoon minced fresh lemon

thyme or regular thyme

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon minced fresh

tarragon

Cayenne (optional)

Maldon sea salt, for garnish

(optional)

This is a sophisticated dish that I pull out in the fall as a first course to impress my family from back East, especially when they start in on the “blue crab is better than Dungeness” rhetoric. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, it is highly likely that you can make this dish with ingredients raised or grown very close to home: world-famous Washington apples and cider, Pacific Dungies, and locally cured bacon.

SERVES 6 AS AN APPETIZER

Double-check the crabmeat for any stray bits of shell. Place it in a medium bowl over another bowl partially filled with very hot tap water. Locate 4 nice, large leg pieces to use as a garnish and set aside. Cover the top bowl. After 5 minutes, give the crabmeat a gentle stir. You want it to be room temperature or slightly warm when you serve the dish.

In a small skillet over medium-high heat, add the bacon. Cook the bacon until its fat is rendered and it is crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate and set aside, reserving the fat. Pour the bacon fat through a fine mesh strainer into a cup. Clean