Cajun Crawfish on “Pasta”
I set out to make shrimp scampi for dinner tonight, but noticed the package of crawfish tails in my freezer and decided “Why not?”. I also just made a fresh batch of breakfast sausage yesterday and it was staring up at me in the fridge. So I decided to include a touch of that as well. My sausage recipe basically consists of 1 lb. lean ground pork and a pinch of my Dad’s poultry seasoning, salt and black pepper. I always have some made up. I was originally going to call it Crawfish Scampi, but that name is usually associated with shrimp and langoustines. Then I thought about Crawfish Spaghetti, but spaghetti always evokes a red sauce for me. So my husband offered the name I settled upon above, as Louisiana Cajun cooking often mixes sausage and seafood together. This dish is suitable for Atkins Induction if the wine is omitted. It would also be suitable for Paleo-Primal diners if the wine is omitted.
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INGREDIENTS:
4 oz. ground pork or breakfast sausage
5 T. unsalted butter
¼ tsp. each salt and black pepper
3 oz. onion, chopped
2 T. chopped shallot
2 large cloves garlic, minced
½ c. parsley, chopped
Pinch each paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper & thyme
1/3 c. white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
12 oz. shelled crawfish tails (I used frozen tails)
Thickener of your choice
2 8-oz. pkgs. shirataki tofu noodles, rinsed
DIRECTIONS: Melt butter in non-stick skillet over high heat. Add onion, shallot, garlic and crumbled pork. Saute until pork is no longer pink and onions are soft. Add parsley and all spices listed. Add wine and lemon juice. Lower heat to medium. Add crawfish tails and set stove to lowest heat. Simmer about 5-10 minutes to allow flavors to mingle. While it is simmering on low, rinse the noodles well in a sieve or colander. Dry them off on a towel and keep covered until ready to plate. Thicken the crawfish mixture a wee bit with your preferred thickener. For each serving, dip ¼ of the mixture over ¼ of the “pasta”. ENJOY!
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:
318 calories
22 g fat
7.43 g carbs, 1.73 g fiber, 5.7 g NET CARBS
20.4 g protein
475 mg sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 
I bet spiral cut zuchini would work well with this too. Both zuchini spirals and shiritaki are great pasta replacers. I want to make this altho I have never heard of crawfish tails. Are these in most stores?
YES! Zucchini noodles or maybe even spaghetti squash would be tasty alternatives in this. Crawfish is what southerners call crayfish (also called mud bugs by some Cajuns). If you’re in the US, Boudreaux brand comes in a 12 oz. plastic bag in the seafood area at your grocery store. Some is being imported from other parts of the world, but I always buy Boudreaux brand at my local Walmart. Most stores carry them nowadays as they became quite popular in the culinary arena some time back. Probably Chef Paul Prudhomme (K-Paul) did more to make crawfish widely known in the 70’s. For most recipes, I would never, EVER rinse off the fat and juice these are packed in, as there is much flavor to be had in that stuff for crawfish etouffee, seafood gumbos and other such conglomerate dishes. But it is a little fishy tasting. Wanting the butter and spices to come through the most here, I washed them for this recipe. I have several other crawfish recipes on my site, such as Crawfish Etouffee: https://buttoni.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/crawfish-etouffee/. Just key “crawfish” into my search box and the search engine will pull those recipes up for you. 🙂 HOPE YOU LIKE THIS when you make it!
Thanks so much once again for your help.
Nicely done, Peggy. I like this one a lot.
Thanks, Richard. It was both quick and tasty. For me, it would probably be better without the sausage added, but my husband really liked the sausage in it a bunch.