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| rowhome magazine
gohomephilly.com
courtesy of Michael Duffield, Hall Company
Spagg & Crabs A Steve Martorano favorite
I thought I’d take a moment to share a sumptuous summer dish that’s one of Steve’s favorites – “Spagg and Crabs” as he calls it – that’s pretty easy for the home cook to prepare and is classic “summer at the shore” fare. He remembers going crabbing in a small motorboat that his family rented with a handmade crab trap. They’d tuck a chicken wing or breast in the crab trap, drop it in the waters off South Jersey and wait – never knowing if they had trapped any crabs until they pulled the trap up. Some folks, he recalls, couldn’t afford a trap – so they dropped a string in the water and grabbed their catch with a net. Once they caught the live crabs – they’d check the bottoms to see if they were male or female crabs. They only kept the male crabs and returned the females to the water so they could continue to mate and reproduce. And - the smaller the crab, the more flavor it produces in the gravy. “Remember,” Steve says, “It’s not sauce, it’s gravy.” Martorano expresses frustration that nobody makes this classic dish anymore and he doesn’t know why. “It’s incredible. The first time I did a dish like this at Anton’s, people lined up around the block just to get a taste.” Here’s his simple recipe for this great dish: “The thing to remember here is that this isn’t a crab sauce, but a crab gravy. To prepare the gravy, take three cans of San Marzano tomatoes and crush them in a bowl with your hands. Get about 25 hard-shell crabs – good ones, like Maryland blue crabs – make sure your fishmonger cleans them well. Add some olive oil and a few cloves of garlic in a pan, then cook the crabs until they get nice and red. Then add some salt, pepper, garlic powder and a little crushed pepper. Add the tomatoes and some fresh basil. Cover the pot and simmer for an hour and 40 minutes and it’s done. “I think this gravy is best served with spaghetti. But you can use any cut of macaroni you want, Cuz – it’s your dinner table. It’s a great meal.”