Food & Drink, Let's cook with Nonna Rosa

Trieste-style Granceola crab | Let’s cook with Nonna Rosa

Dear food-loving friends, in this particularly hot period I propose Trieste-style Granceola crab, an appetiser or main course typical of Friuli Venezia Giulia, popular in the beautiful Trieste and throughout the region. This huge crab, caught in the Gulf of Trieste and the northern Adriatic Sea, like all crustaceans is unfortunately sold live, so its cooking is similar to that of lobster. You get a delicious dish with a delicate flavour, an excellent alternative to the usual seafood salad.

It serves 4:

4 Granceola crabs
Extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 sprig of parsley
1 lemon
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 onion
1 celery stalk
1 carrot
2 cloves of garlic

Difficulty: Medium

Time: 90 minutes

Procedure:

Soak the Granceola crabs in cold water for about 3 hours, changing the water often. Prepare the vegetable stock: fill a pot with water, salt, add the celery, carrot and onion and bring to the boil. Drain the Granceola crabs and cook them in the stock for about 10 minutes, remove them and clean the back removing any residue. Cut them open by sticking a knife through the eyes, remove the pulp and the liquid in the shell and keep the four shells; do the same with the claws and collect all the pulp in a container. Peel the garlic and mince it together with the parsley, then add the minced garlic to the crab meat, add 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mix well. Distribute the pulp in the shells, arrange them on a baking tray, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake at 170° for about 30 minutes. Finally, serve them piping hot with lemon wedges.