This week's dish has essentially three elements - a crab sauce, a mix of crab, scallop and cream, and a pasta recipe you should treat as a staple of your culinary repertoire.

It's fairly time-consuming to put the dish together so do not embark on it unless you have an hour or two to spare (though you can make the pasta a day or two in advance), and before starting ensure you have a table top steamer, a pasta machine and six 5cm-diameter stainless-steel rings.

White crab meat with herb pasta and crab sauce

Serves 6

Pasta

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

55g baby spinach

130g basil leaves

480g 00 pasta flour

2 pinches of salt

50ml water

2tsp olive oil

Crack the eggs into a bowl with the yolks, beat together with a whisk and set aside.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Drop the spinach into the pan, add the basil 10 seconds later and cook for 20 seconds. Remove the basil and spinach from the pan and place in a bowl of cold water to cool down and prevent further cooking. Strain the spinach and basil in a colander then place them in a clean dishcloth and carefully squeeze out all the excess water until dry. Place the eggs, spinach and basil in a liquidiser and blend until smooth.

Put the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on a very low speed. Slowly add the egg mixture and beat to a smooth dough. Add the water and olive oil, turn up the speed of the machine slightly and beat until the dough becomes smooth and even. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Divide the pasta into four even pieces, wrap them in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Crab sauce

5tbsp olive oil

1kg velvet crabs

50g butter

1 carrot, diced

1 onion, diced

1 stick of celery, diced

2 whole star anise

0.5tsp fennel seed

Pinch of mild curry powder

125ml dry white wine

4 ripe vine tomatoes, halved

2 bulbs of garlic, halved

1.5l fish stock

3tbsp lightly whipped cream

1tsp lemon juice

Salt for seasoning

Place a large heavy-based pan over a high heat. Pour the olive oil into the pan, carefully add the crabs and roast them for 10 minutes until nicely coloured, then drain them in a colander.

Add the butter to the pan and cook the carrot, onion and celery until light golden brown. Add the star anise, fennel seeds and curry powder and cook for 2 minutes. Add the wine and reduce it until almost evaporated, then return the crabs to the pan and lightly crush them with a rolling pin. Add the tomatoes, garlic and fish stock and boil quickly for 20-30 minutes. Leave the contents of the pan to rest for 30 minutes then strain them through a fine sieve. Finish by mixing in the whipped cream and lemon juice, then check the seasoning.

Crab mixture

2 scallops, chilled

1 egg white

A pinch of cayenne powder

1tsp fresh lemon juice

80ml double cream

200g freshly picked white crab meat

Place the scallops, egg white, cayenne powder and lemon juice in a small food blender and blend for 30 seconds until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a clean bowl, add the double cream, crab meat and a pinch of salt, and mix together. Refrigerate the mixture until ready to serve.

Rolling and cooking the pasta

Using a pasta machine, roll out two pieces of the prepared pasta dough as thinly as you can. Place the strips of pasta into a large pan of boiling salted water and cook for 60 seconds before transferring to a bowl of cold water. Once cool, remove the pasta from the water and place it on a clean dishtowel to dry.

Using the metal cutter, cut out 24 pasta discs.

Lightly butter the inside of each metal ring then tightly clingfilm the bottom of each. Place a pasta disc inside the ring then add 1tsp of the crab mixture and smooth it out over the pasta. Repeat the process until each ring contains four layers of pasta and three layers of crab. Store the crab and pasta in the fridge until ready to serve.

Cooking and serving

Bring a tabletop steamer to the boil. Place the stainless-steel moulds in the steamer (with the clingfilm still on the base) for 5 minutes so the layers of pasta and crab are hot.

Warm the crab sauce in a saucepan. Take the moulds out of the steamer and remove the clingfilm from the bottom of each. Gently push the crab and pasta out of the mould and on to a warm plate and finish with a little crab sauce.

WINE MATCH

2008 Pouilly Fuissee, Vergecosse, Saumaise-Michelin (Henri of Edinburgh, £19.50)

Aromas of vanilla and pineapple lead to a palate of grapefruit and lemon zest, while a touch of oak adds depth and nutty character.