Crawfish Pasta with Chile Pepper Sauce
Morita chiles are red, fully mature Chipotles. This gives them a unique, medium – hot smokey flavor which is popular in many Southwestern dishes. These can be added to sauces (including Mole) to add smokey flavor and maintain the red color of the sauces. These peppers are about 2-4 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and have a deep brick reddish brown color. The word Chipotle translated to smoked chile. Consider the Chipotle a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hottest). Scoville heat units 7,000-25,000.
Ingredients:
12 sun-dried tomatoes
1 chipotle chile
12 oz. angel hair pasta
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup tequila
1 pound peeled crawfish
1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions:
Soak the sun-dried tomatoes and chipotle chile in a bowl of hot water for 30 minutes. Drain and chop the tomatoes. Stem and deseed the chipotle chile. Chop the chile, add to the tomatoes and set aside.
Prepare the angel hair pasta according to package directions; drain and keep warm.
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic for about 1 minute; add the tomatoes and chipotle chile and saute for 3-5 minutes. Add the tequila and cook until the liquid is reduced by about one-third, about 5 minutes. Add the crawfish and cook until they are opaque and red, about 5 minutes. Add the cream to the skillet and cook until it is heated through and begins to thicken. Serve over the cooked angel hair.
Adapted from a recipe on www.cooksrecipes.com.