Crawfish Monica — United States

Crawfish Monica is a pasta dish built around crawfish tail meat tossed in a rich, creole-spiced cream sauce, most often served over rotini, whose ridges and curls help the sauce cling to the pasta. The dish is reported from Louisiana, where it is credited to chef Pierre Hilzim, head of Kajun Kettle Foods, who named it after his wife, Monica Davidson. It became widely known through food stalls at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where it remains a well-known item, and from there spread to restaurant menus around the region. To prepare it, onion and garlic are softened in butter, then a splash of white wine and cream are added and reduced with creole seasoning until the sauce thickens slightly. Crawfish tail meat is folded in just long enough to warm through without overcooking, and the sauce is seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Cooked rotini is tossed directly in the sauce so it coats every piece, and the dish is finished with a scattering of chopped parsley. What distinguishes this dish within the wider family of Louisiana crawfish pasta dishes is its particular combination of cream, wine, and creole seasoning, along with its strong tie to festival food stalls rather than a formal restaurant origin. Shrimp, crabmeat, or oysters are commonly substituted for crawfish when it is out of season, without changing the basic sauce.