The New York Times recipe for spicy lobster pasta: Lobster stirs up the sauce

In Rome several years ago, at the all-fish restaurant Quinzi & Gabrieli, I was served a lobster pasta as a first course that haunts me still. Somehow the dish was simultaneously delicate and robust — wide, silky pappardelle noodles napped with a creamy yet intensely piquant sauce.

On another trip that took me high into the Italian Alps, an unlikely setting for shellfish, I ate at the rustic restaurant Chalet Etoile, run by a talented chef of Swedish origin. She makes a kicky spaghetti with lobster that’s rather addictive, served with half a lobster on top. A plate of this pasta is fortifying fare after a day of skiing.

My recipe for spicy lobster pasta is an amalgam of these, with a slight nod to fra diavolo, the spicy Italian-American tomato sauce often used with shellfish and pasta. It has a spicy, rust-colored tomato-based sauce heightened by a concentrated lobster broth, flecked with chilli flakes and enriched with cream.

The fra diavolo technique calls for cutting a raw lobster into pieces with the shell still attached, then sauteing and simmering them in the sauce. It’s a lovely way to infuse the sauce with flavour, but the diner is then burdened with the task of prising the meat from the shell while attempting to twirl spaghetti on a fork.

With my method, the lobsters are par-cooked first. The shells and heads are used to make a concentrated broth, which is added to the sauce. The final dish contains bits of tender lobster throughout and only one cracked claw for a person to contend with.

If you prepare the majority of the recipe a couple of hours ahead and finish the assembly just before dinner, you will find it’s quite manageable. And though I think of it as a winter pasta, there’s really no reason not to make it year-round.

Spicy Lobster Pasta

Ingredients:

2 lobsters, 700g each

2 tbsp butter

1 small carrot, chopped

1 celery stick, chopped

1 bay leaf

A few thyme sprigs

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp hot red chilli flakes

Salt and pepper

½ cup white wine

2 cups tomato puree

½ cup heavy cream

450g bucatini pasta or other firm-textured dry pasta

3 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tsp lemon zest

Preparation:

Step 1 Steam or boil lobsters for 6 minutes. Cool to room temperature under running water. Separate claws and tails from lobster heads. Remove tail meat from shell. Pull away black vein and discard, then cut meat into 1.2cm slices and set aside. Crack claws with mallet, without removing meat, and set aside.

Step 2 With a large knife, split lobster heads in half lengthwise. Remove and discard stomach sacks located just behind eyes and roughly chop tail shell. Heat butter in a wide saucepan or frying pan over medium-high heat. Add heads and shells, with any collected juices, and saute for about 1 minute. Add carrot, celery, bay leaf and thyme and cook, stirring, for 1 minute more. Add 3 cups water and simmer rapidly for about 10 minutes to reduce by half. Strain, discarding shells, herbs and vegetables. You should have 1 ½ cups of rich lobster broth.

Step 3 Wipe pan with paper towel and return to stovetop over medium-high heat. Warm the olive oil, then add diced onion, garlic and hot chilli flakes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until onions are completely soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. Take care not to let onion mixture brown.

Step 4 Add wine and simmer rapidly for 2 minutes, then add tomato puree and lobster broth. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add cream and simmer until sauce has thickened somewhat, about 5 minutes more. Turn off heat and adjust seasoning (it should be spicy). You can prepare up to this point several hours in advance.

Step 5 Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Reheat sauce, add cracked lobster claws and simmer for 2 minutes. Add sliced lobster meat and cook for a minute or less, until just heated. Mix parsley and lemon zest together. Drain pasta and add to sauce, tossing to distribute lobster meat, then transfer to a warm bowl or platter. Arrange one claw on top of each serving and sprinkle with parsley mixture.

Serves 4

Total time: 1 hour

2014 New York Times News Service