RCP: Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

[Jenise]

Yeah, lobster macaroni and cheese. How decadent is that?

A friend of mine made this for an early course in a multi-course meal served to highlight several flights of white and red burgundies. I wasn't able to attend, but good as the courses that she chose to follow sounded, this is the dish that stole the show. Well, until dessert--that was a Mexican chocolate tart with cinnamon pecans. Yow.


1 Tbls Olive Oil
1 Tbls shallots diced
½ cup Cognac
2 cups heavy cream
1 container Mascarpone Cheese
½ cup Parmesan Cheese
1 cup Fontina Cheese
16 oz pasta shells cooked
16 oz lobster tail meat chopped
2 Tlbs chives chopped
½ cup lobster stock (vegetable stock would be fine)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat oil and add shallots and sauté till clear then deglaze with the cognac. Add the cream and stock and bring to boil, and then add the cheese and lobster meat. Mix in pasta shells, chives and salt and pepper to taste.

Jenise, as good as this sounds, but wouldn't the cheese flavors overpower the lobster? Pasteurized lobster meat goes for $20 a pound here,.I would hate to have it a non factor. I do a mac-n-cheese using raclette and fontina with sauteed mushrooms that is killer.

[Jenise]

Bob, since I haven't done the recipe myself (actually, I will tonight, using cheddar in place of fontina) I can't answer your question from actual experience, but offhand I don't think so. Lobster's pretty forceful--think lobster thermidor, or even more en pointe losbster newburg, if you remember that darling of 50's Continental cuisine. This recipe also reminded me of a lobster agnolotti (I may not have spelled that right, but little half-moon shaped filled pasta shapes) that used to be on the menu at Prego in So Cal--it was served in an orange Cheeze-Wizzy tasting cheese sauce and sprinkled with chives that I adored.

Pasteurized lobster meat?

Pasteurized lobster meat?

Dale, we are not all served with or by a fresh, never frozen seafood purveyor such as can be found in "The City" however, pasteurized lobster and or crab, beats no lobster or crab at all. I can't imagine the price I would have to pay if it were flown in fresh daily.

Oh, how deliciously bad for you!!!

Whoa baby!!!!! A pound of lobster to a pound of pasta plus two cups of cream, a cup of fontina and 8 oz (I assume) of mascarpone???!! Holy atherosclerosis, Batman!!!

I am so going to make this.


Mike

[Jenise]

Mike, we're on the same wavelength.

So guess what, company dropped in so I served wine and then said, "you must stay for dinner, we're having lobster mac and cheese." Well, they almost fainted when I showed them the two 3/4 lb tails I'd just roasted and was going to put into the dish--this was Monday night food? And then when I served them the dish (which I made subbing tillamook medium cheddar for the fontina, adding more parmesan+cheddar and skippping the mascarpone--cat emergency, couldn't leave home for groceries--and the result was absolutely wonderful and outrageous. The best seafood pasta I've perhaps everf had. So, I didn't do it quite by the book but it was so good I can hardly imagine it any other way. OUTSTANDING.

So Bob--don't overtthink it, just do it. It's actually not that cheesy at all, just rich. You'll LOVE it.

Jenise, is this a 250 gram container of mascarpone?
cheers, Bonnie

Bob,
I'm just surprised that any place doesn't have live lobster these days. I live in a small town, yet both the lone grocery store and the Korean market have lobster tanks. Certainly widely available in Greensboro NC or Alpharetta GA, which aren't by shore or much more urban than Lexington.

You are correct Dale, I just never considered live lobsters. I will of course consider them now though. I think that I might have a little bit of sympathy for them in the water with their claws wired shut. Not sure I would want to kill one.

Mike, we're on the same wavelength.

So guess what, company dropped in so I served wine and then said, "you must stay for dinner. We're having lobster mac and cheese." Well, they almost fainted. And then I served them the dish (which I made subbing tillamook medium cheddar for the fontina, adding more parmesan+cheddar and skippping the mascarpone--cat emergency, couldn't leave home for groceries--and the result was absolutely wonderful and outrageous. The best seafood pasta I've perhaps everf had. My guests left, their heads spinning over the prospect that I was making this for just us. So, I didn't do it quite by the book but it was so good I can hardly imagine it any other way. OUTSTANDING.

So Bob--don't overtthink it, just do it. It's actually not that cheesy at all, just rich. You'll LOVE it.

Sounds great!

Hope the cat emergency was not serious.


Mike

[Jenise]

Bonnie, Beth's recipe wasn't specific about size but a container of mascarpone here would normally be about 8 ounces, so yes.

Bob, I don't have live lobster around me either. I just bought two previously frozen lobster tails at Costco. I roasted them by pulling the meat up on top of the shell, deveining, splaying the cut flaps out to each side, brushing with butter and broiling at 400 for ten minutes, then turning the oven off and letting them sit in the hot oven for another ten minutes. These were 3/4 lb each. After removing the meat, which I sliced/chopped just before adding to the sauce, I broke up the shells and stewed them in some chicken broth for about 30 minutes--that became my 'lobster stock'. Half went into the dish, half went into a little container for the freezer and another seafood dish down the line.

Mike, re the cat: yeah, it's bad. My oldest boy, Dave the Surfer Dude, is dying.

Jenise, I am so sorry for your sorrow. I've been there and I know it is a very hard thing to watch. Finally we do the right thing and let them go. Again, I am so sorry.

Sorry to hear about Dave, Jenise. Tough days. Our thoughts are with you. Regards, Bob

Sorry to hear about that, Jenise. I hope Dave's comfortable and that things go as well as they can from now on.


Mike

[Jenise]

Thanks for the sympathy, guys. I shouldn't have brought it up. As such things go, it's okay. These are sad and difficult days, but it's also the end of a long and happy little life. Of the seven cats we've lost during our marriage, Dave is the first to die of old age and we're not too sad to be grateful for that. He's 19.