Antonio’s Amazing Italian Crab Cakes (Rockets, Rotten Babysitting and a Recipe)
Antonio’s Italian crab cakes are Italian because the recipe is from my 100% Italian brother, Antonio!
Chances are, you’ll know that I’ve shared many family recipes in the past, with a little story about each corresponding family member.
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Here is a relatively recent post that lists all my family members’ recipes, but there’s been one serious cook who’s been missing until this point, and that’s my younger brother Antonio, or Tony, as we call him.
As I do with all my family posts, I’m going to tell you a little about him, then share his very own recipe for crab cakes, which are phenomenal (he uses wild rice). I like to add photos to tell my story…
This is us when we were cute.
I don’t remember the story behind this picture, but if you look closely, I may just be sucking on the last Smartie (British version of an M & M) from the tube that Tony is looking into.
I don’t even know where to start to describe Tony, so maybe I’ll just give you some examples of things he’s done, and my guess is that you’ll put together your own mental image of what he’s like, and you’ll probably be spot on! Then we’ll get to his *AMAZING Italian crab cakes (you can scroll to the bottom for the recipe).
When he was younger, he used to blow things up–a lot.
If he used anything, he’d often break it. This is actually still the case, and the reason why I panic whenever he picks up anything in my kitchen. Tony’s rough and doesn’t ever even try to be careful–that word is just not in his vocabulary. In fact, he once totaled my car when I was away at college.
So yeah, I worry about him in my kitchen. He must have given my parents every white hair on their heads when he was a teenager; don’t even ask. You’d think he’s dressed for church here, but what’s he holding? A slingshot.
When my son, Steven, was about 4 years old, he went for his very first sleepover with Uncle Tony. I dropped him off just before lunch and left soon after. When I picked up Steven the next day and asked him how his stay was, I started to get details.
Immediately after I left, Uncle Tony had taken Steven to the beach and bought him ice cream. When Steven proclaimed, “But I haven’t had lunch yet!” Uncle Tony announced, “That is your lunch, kid!”
Tony babysat my daughter, Denisa, when she was almost two. I came home and panicked when I went to check on her and saw that her crib was empty! She wasn’t in the crib, but under it. I decided I couldn’t complain; at least he gave her a pillow and she was still in the house.
I can’t add the photo here, but let’s just say that Tony dressed up Denisa when she was about four, to look like she was a criminal, complete with a knit cap, dark glasses, and a toy gun. Oh, and he showed her how to grimace for the photo.
Tony used to decry anyone who ate sushi, saying, “Why would anyone want to eat raw fish?!” Then he went to Japan and came back stating that sushi was the best thing ever. My brother always declared that he was never going to get married, yet he’s been married almost 7 years now. He also said he was never going to have kids; yep, you guessed it, his wife is expecting their first baby in two weeks!
He’s turned his childhood passion of blowing things up into a job of getting rockets into space. Honest, that’s really what he does! And when he gets home from work, he heads straight into the kitchen. Tony never sits, hardly ever sleeps and makes everyone around him just a wee bit crazy.
He got all the dark Italian skin genes which is so unfair because I got none. He acts like a tough guy, but he loves to be in the kitchen (it’s usually his own, thank God), and always brings food to work for his colleagues.
And did I mention that he loves Dean Martin?
I think you’ve got the picture.
Let’s get to Tony’s Italian crab cake recipe now. He brought these (in the photo below) to my house over the winter and we all devoured them in minutes. He made some in the traditional crab cake shape, and others in roundish bites, as in the photo. Honestly, they were the best crab cakes I’ve ever tasted (yes, I’ve been to the east coast and had them in Maryland).
In fact, when we were in Georgetown for my son’s graduation last month, one restaurant boasted that they were famous for their crab cakes, so we ordered some and they were truly disappointing after having Tony’s (I haven’t told him that)! We don’t like to compliment each other face to face, we do it behind each other’s backs. :)
Tony uses Alaskan King Crab legs for his Italian crab cakes. Of course, using the best ingredients makes for the best results, and Italians are famous for using the best quality ingredients. I did use lump crab meat (for cost’s sake) and they were still better by far, than the ones at the Georgetown restaurant.
*I call these Antonio’s Amazing Italian Crab Cakes because he absolutely cannot stand the overuse of the word “amazing”. My brother goes on rants about people stating absolutely everything is “amazing”, from a nail polish color, to the miracle of life, and how there is no gradient in between; so I like to use the word when I’m around him, more often than I usually do.
Hey, that’s what siblings do, right? I’m an amazing sister!
Tony added this to the comments below because I forgot to tell you: you can also substitute the crab with salmon (precooked the day before) for delicious salmon cakes.
Antonio’s Amazing Italian Crab Cakes
(Italian? Because because my brother is Italian) 😎
Recipe by Antonio Conte Makes about 8 crab cakes
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Sauté the onion and red bell pepper in olive oil for about 5 minutes.
Tony makes some pretty killer enchiladas too. Try these crab cakes and let “Uncle Tony” know how you like them in the comments below!
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Antonio's Amazing Italian Crab Cakes
Ingredients
- 8 oz lump crab meat
- 2 ½ oz wild rice (cooked)
- 2 oz yellow onion (diced)
- 1 oz red bell pepper (diced)
- 1 egg
- 2 oz bread crumbs (or roughly crushed crackers/panko)
- 2 oz mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp Tapatio hot sauce (or other hot sauce)
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ⅛ tsp pepper (to taste)
- ½ cup more panko crumbs (for breading the cakes)
- olive oil (as needed for frying the crab cakes)
Sauce:
- 2 oz mayonnaise
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- ⅛ tsp Tapatio (or other hot sauce)
Instructions
- Sauté the onion and red bell pepper in olive oil for about 5 minutes.
- Place the crab, wild rice, onion and red pepper, egg, panko crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, hot sauce, salt and pepper in large bowl and briefly and gently mix until combined.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour as they will hold their form better.
- While the mixture is chilling, make the sauce: combine the mayonnaise, mustard and hot sauce and stir until evenly combined. Keep refrigerated
- When almost ready to serve the crab cakes, form the mixture into patties and dredge in breadcrumbs, then place on a tray.
- Heat some olive oil in a nonstick sauté pan over medium high heat, then add a few cakes. Fry until golden brown on each side.
- Remove from pan and place on paper towel lined plate, then place on serving platter. Serve with sauce, while hot.
Notes
- If you want to make it with fresh crab meat, these are even better.
Seriously the best Crab Cakes!
I had some Alaska King Crab legs left over from the holidays so I was excited to try Tony’s recipe, I’ve always made them with blue claw/lump crab… AKC is much better. Love the texture and toothyness (spelling🫤) of the wild rice.
Double the recipe, you’ll be glad to have more! Thanks Tony!
So happy to hear this, Janet! They are just sooo delish! Will let him know :)
Being from Md. this is difficult for me to say , I have been brought up on Md style crab-cakes , hopefully better then what you experienced in Georgetown ( that’s not Md that’s DC , friendly ribbing intended) but your brothers sound delicious and I am giving them a try.
You had me with the word Italian. You have my email so if you are ever in Balt area I will give you a few to try , not better then Antonio’s but pretty darn good
Thanks, Wilfred! I know Georgetown isn’t on par with Maryland, but they’re so close, I expected better :) Enjoy these! We just made some yesterday as I found a tin of crab! We’re making do with what we have these days! Stay safe and thank you for the note!