Aligue Pasta with Cream – I love noodles! May it be noodle soups, stir-fried noodles, or pasta, I love them all. And, now that I learned how to cook Aligue Pasta, it might just be one of those dishes I can add to my menu.
Growing up, I was used to eating red sauce (or tomato sauce) pasta. Then, I learned about carbonara, and then pesto. Now, there’s a new addition to the list of comfort foods I can enjoy, as long as I have the main ingredients — Aligue Pasta.
But what is Aligue pasta made of, and what’s the taste?
I knew that aligue is made of crab fat and the taste might be a bit weird for some who don’t like eating crab fat. But, when aligue is mixed in cream sauce and topped on pasta, the weird taste suddenly becomes familiar.
Upon tasting the Aligue Pasta that I cooked, the taste is just like crab meat or that of seafoody flavor. So, if you’re not used to the seafood taste, you might not like the Aligue Pasta.
How is Aligue made?
Aligue (or crab roe paste), more commonly known as “taba ng talangka,” comes from the crab gut (or fatty crab roe).
How do they make aligue? After squeezing out the crab roe from the crabs, they will cook the crab fat, add vinegar or calamansi juice and salt, then simmer until it is cooked. To fill a bottle jar, hundreds of small crabs are needed.
Crab Paste Recipes
I received a bottle of aligue (or crab fat) and couldn’t think of what to do with it besides cooking it to crab paste pasta. However, there are also other things to do with crab paste instead of using it for pasta.
Here are some of the aligue crab paste recipes you can try:
- Fried rice with crab paste
- Shrimp with crab fat sauce (or you can use other seafood available if you don’t have shrimp)
- Crab paste butter
- How about a crab paste dip?
You can use crab paste with just about anything you want, as long as your taste buds approve.
Aligue Pasta Ingredients
The ingredients that you need to make Aligue Pasta are very simple. All you need is crab paste, cream, and some seafood you can find in your local market. However, if you can’t find any seafood meat, you can always enjoy your aligue pasta sauce alone.
Here’s the list of what I used:
400 grams spaghettini (you can also use any pasta or spaghetti noodles), cooked according to package instructions
½ c pasta water
2.5 tbsp crab paste (aligue), adjust to your liking
150 grams all-purpose cream (you can use heavy cream), add more if you want a creamier aligue pasta sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, minced
1.5 tsp neutral oil
Salt and ground white pepper to taste
Slurry water (cornstarch dissolved in water), to make your sauce thicker
Optional:
1 tbsp rice wine (I used what’s available at home)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
For the seafood meat, I used crabmeat and frozen peeled shrimp we got from the local supermarket. You can use squid, real crab meat, or cuttlefish. Find out what works best for you, so you can enjoy your Aligue Pasta more!
Pasta Aligue Recipe
I’m surprised it was very easy to cook the Aligue Pasta when I’m just used to cooking tomato and cream-based pasta. So, let’s get cooking, so you can try your crab fat pasta as soon as possible!
- Heat your large pan then add the neutral or cooking oil.
- Saute your garlic and onions until fragrant.
- Pour your rice wine (optional) then stir.
- Add the crab aligue and stir occasionally until your house smells like crab fat.
- Add salt and white pepper for more flavor.
- Next, you need the all-purpose cream or heavy cream and stir.
- Add pasta water and let the sauce simmer. Taste-test your sauce and add more of the ingredients to your liking.
- Add the seafood meat and simmer until the seafood is cooked. I added the shrimp first then crabmeat halfway through since crabmeat is already precooked.
- Voila! Your Aligue Pasta is ready!
Notes:
- If you wish to add the noodles to the sauce during cooking, reduce the cooking time of the pasta for about 2 minutes to avoid overcooking them.
- Add more ground pepper if wish to mask more of the seafoody smell. Do take note that your pasta sauce might become more spicy if you do this!
- But if you prefer a spicier version, you can add chili flakes or powder to your aligue crab paste sauce.
- You may also add a tablespoon of butter at the end if you want it to be more flavorful.
Aligue Pasta Calories
Aligue pasta is quite addicting, isn’t it? But wait! Before you get your 2nd round of crab fat pasta, watch out for your calories! A tablespoon of aligue contains 80 calories, so beware about how much you’ll consume.
Another thing you have to take note of is that crab paste contains lots of cholesterol, so be careful about consuming too much.
Aligue Pasta Recipe Conclusion
This crab paste recipe is based on what’s available in our kitchen, and I made it as simple as possible. I might be cooking aligue pasta again in the near future so as not to waste the leftover crab paste in the bottle.
Thankfully, this recipe is approved by hubby, so we both get to enjoy a new pasta recipe besides our usual. How about you, did you like this recipe too? I’d love to hear your comments!
