Soft Shell Crab Pizza

We love seafood pizza at Cameron’s Seafood. The crispy crust, salty cheese, and sweet meat are hard to resist. This soft shell crab pizza is a pizza bianca, or a white pizza. Meaning, it uses a garlic olive oil sauce, rather than a traditional tomato sauce.

When you use Cameron’s Maryland soft shell crabs for your pizza, you don’t have to worry about digging crab meat out of hard shells. You can simply sauté the crabs once thawed and dice them into ½ inch pieces to put on your pizza.

We have adapted Rick’s Seafood Pizza recipe from the Food Network website. He uses a homemade pizza crust, but you can definitely get store bought crust if you are running short on time.

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Soft Shell Crab Pizza

Skill Level: Intermediate

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 3 people

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

• 3 cups ½all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1½ cups warm water
• 2 tsp yeast

Sauce

• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
• ½ cup fresh parmesan grated

Soft shell Crab Topping

• 6 Cameron’s Maryland soft shell crabs thawed
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper

Other Toppings

• ¼ cup basil leaves chopped
• any other toppings you might want to add to your pizza

Instructions

Homemade dough (optional)

1. Mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar together in a small bowl and let sit until you see the yeast starting to foam to the top.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and the salt. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl and stir with a large spoon until it starts to come together. Stir in the oil and knead the dough with your hands for about 5 minutes.
3. Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl, covered with saran wrap, for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in volume. Cut the dough into 3 pieces and roll them out to fit your pans. Flour the preparation area to prevent sticking.
4. If you find the dough is not rolling easily, cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for a few more minutes, which will help loosen the gluten. This recipe should make approximately three 12-inch crust pizzas.

Pizza Assembly

1. Stir the garlic and olive oil for the sauce together in a small bowl and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Use a pastry brush to spread an even layer of the sauce over each of the pizzas. Scatter the parmesan evenly over the three crusts and then do the same with the mozzarella.
2. Heat the cooking oil in a large sauté pan. Season the crabs with salt and pepper and place them in the pan directly after the garlic. Cook the crabs for 2 minutes on each side and remove them from the pan. Allocate enough time to cook the crabs in 2 batches. Using a knife or kitchen shears, cut the crabs into bite sized chunks.
3. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange the soft shell crab chunks, the chopped basil, and any other toppings you might like on top of the pizzas. Cook each one for 12-15 minutes. Let the pizzas sit for a few minutes before cutting into them to allow the cheese to cool.

Buy Maryland Soft Shell Crabs Online

You can purchase soft shell crabs from our online store for your pizza.

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By: Melanie Craighead