Crab Spaghetti with Salted Yuzu Rice Vinegar, Brown Butter, Dried Chilli and Cavolo Nero
There is a moment in this recipe that nobody tells you about. The butter has gone brown and nutty. The garlic is in. The chilli is in. And then you do something that feels entirely wrong. You pour a Japanese yuzu vinegar directly into the hot butter and watch it spit and hiss and settle into the most glossy, golden, quietly extraordinary sauce you have ever made on a Tuesday night.
The crab goes in last. Fold it, don’t stir it. It deserves that much.
SERVES 2
TIME 20 minutes
INGREDIENTS
200g spaghetti
150g white crab meat
100g cavolo nero, stems removed, leaves roughly torn
75g unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp dried chilli flakes 3 tbsp Salted Yuzu Rice Vinegar, plus more to finish Flaky sea salt
METHOD Get a large pan of well-salted water on. Properly salted, it should taste like the sea the crab came from. While that rumbles to a boil, throw the cavolo nero into a dry pan over high heat for two minutes. No oil, no fuss. You want it a little wild at the edges, slightly charred, still green. Set it aside. It knows what it did. Cook the spaghetti two minutes shy of the packet. It has more to learn. While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a wide pan over medium heat. Keep going until it turns golden and smells nutty. That is the brown butter. Add the garlic and chilli flakes. Thirty seconds. Do not let it burn. Now pour the Salted Yuzu Rice Vinegar directly into the brown butter. It will spit and hiss and carry on. Let it. Give it a stir. Watch it calm into something glossy and golden and entirely too good looking for a weeknight. Tongs into the pasta water. Drag the spaghetti across into the pan, bringing a generous splash of that starchy water with it. Toss. The sauce will cling. Add the crab and the cavolo nero. Fold it through gently. The crab should stay in pieces, not disappear into the pasta. It deserves better than that. Taste it. Season with flaky salt if it needs it. It probably will not. Twist it into bowls. Then lift the bottle high and pour the Salted Yuzu Rice Vinegar over the top from height. Cold acid over hot pasta. It lands like punctuation. That is the moment. That is why we made this. Eat immediately. Do not wait for anyone.
RECIPE NOTES White crab from a fishmonger will always beat a supermarket tin. Ask for fresh dressed crab if they have it. Frozen works too. Cavolo nero from a farmers market in October is a different vegetable to the bagged kind. Worth seeking out. The Salted Yuzu Rice Vinegar is available at kaiwhenua.co.uk.
Salted Yuzu Rice Vinegar
Founding batch. 50 bottles. November 2026.
Made with yuzu puree, traditional sweet rice mirin and sea salt sourced from the Essex coast. Clean, bright, precise. The kind of finishing ingredient that makes everything around it taste more like itself.
The spray gives you control. A whisper of saline acidity that wakes food up without announcing itself. It does not overpower. It clarifies.
The colour band at the base is our nod to synaesthesia, a gift my wife carries. Colour and sound arriving together. What you taste and what you feel.
300ml with spray attachment. Small batch. London-made.
HOW TO USE IT
Mist it over salmon, cod or halibut before they hit the pan. The acid firms the flesh at the surface, the mirin gives a clean glaze in the pan.
Spray your knife when cutting sashimi and the blade seasons the fish.
Use it as a cure. Four or five sprays over raw fish. Leave uncovered in the fridge overnight. Roast it the next day, or slice it thin and serve as is.
Finishing vinegars are a chef’s secret weapon. A single spray before a dish leaves the kitchen adds a touch of elegance that diners can rarely name but always feel. This is that ingredient.
DETAILS
300ml
Spray attachment included
Ingredients: rice vinegar, yuzu puree, sweet rice mirin, sea salt (Essex coast)
Made in London
Store in a cool dry place. Refrigerate after opening.