Match of the week

Crab mac’n’cheese and champagne

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on November 9 2020 at 08:16

I wouldn’t have necessarily opened a bottle specifically to drink with Nigella’s crab mac’n’cheese but Biden had just won the presidency and it seemed like the right thing to do. And in fact it went brilliantly.

The recipe is from her fabulous new book Cook, eat, repeat and is a bit spicier from the standard recipe with smoked paprika and aleppo pepper which offsets the crab meat (white and, crucially, brown) nicely. Interestingly she doesn’t add extra cheese or breadcrumbs as a topping or put it under the grill. I was a bit sceptical about that but went along with it and she was 100% right as it gives a silky texture to the dish you wouldn’t otherwise get. And, appropriately enough, it’s crabby rather than cheesy.

I had a bottle of Pol Roger to hand which I was, um, *tasting* for a feature and it seemed rude not to demolish the rest of it. Just in order to be able to report back, of course and it IS the perfect match though I'm thinking a good Chablis would be spot on too.

Anyway you should buy the book, make the recipe and try it for yourself!

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