Spiny Lobster Basket, Cestino all'Aragosta

Prep Time: 1 hours, 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hours, 00 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup + 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 pound tagliatelle (fettuccine)
• A sheet of fresh pasta (store-bought will be fine)
• 2 lobster tails
• 5 packets saffron
• 1 shallot
• 3/4 cup chopped plum tomatoes (canned will be fine)
• Olive oil
• 1/4 pound champignons
• 1 clove garlic
• 2/3 cup cream
• 1 teaspoon Cognac
• 1 teaspoon Vermouth
• 2 tablespoons chopped fennel tops
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Sift the flour into a bowl, cut 2/3 cup butter into it, and form it into a dough, adding just a little bit of cool water, and toughing it as little as possible. Form it into a ball and chill it for about an hour.

Peel the lobster tails and slice the meat. Mince the shallot and sauté it in 1/4 cup butter. Mix the saffron into a little bit of hot water, and when the shallot has become translucent, stir it in; season the mixture with salt and pepper, add the vermouth and the cognac. Bring the sauce to a boil, add the lobster, cook for a couple of minutes, then cover and turn off the flame (keep it warm).

Brush the mushrooms clean and slice them, then sauté them until they wilt in a few drops of olive oil. Season them with salt and pepper, and blend them with the tomato and the garlic. Stir the resulting sauce into the lobster.

Butter a crostata dish (an elegant, round, 10-12 inch diameter oven-proof dish with a flat bottom and an inch-high rim; it's flatter than a pie plate, and in its absence I would use a round metal pizza tray, and serve it on a larger platter, inventing some sort of garnish to mask its presence). Roll the dough out into a thin sheet, line the dish with it, cover the dough with a sheet of aluminum foil, and sprinkle a couple of handfuls of dried beans over the foil. Bake in a 450 degree (220 C) oven for 2 minutes. In the meantime, cut decorative leafy forms from the sheet of fresh pasta dough. Once the dough has baked, remove it from the oven, remove the beans and aluminum foil, and let cool. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees (200 C) and dry the pasta leaves for about 20 minutes; the heat will turn them pretty shades of brown.

Boil the tagliatelle in lightly salted water until they are al dente, and drain them. In the mean time, stir the minced fennel tops and the cream into the lobster, and heat the sauce through on the fire. Season the pasta with the sauce, carefully transfer it to the pie crust, decorate the dish with the pasta leaves, and serve.

This will take about 90 minutes to prepare, and will serve 4. It will go nicely with an elegant white wine, for example Lambruschi's Vermentino dei Colli di Luni or La Ferghettina's Bianco di Franciacorta (their Franciacorta sparkling wine would also be nice here). should you have a difficult time finding these, Bellavista Bianco Franciacorta Uccellanda would be nice, as would Bellavista Convento dell’Annunciata Bianco di Franciacorta (both barrel-fermented Chardonnays). Or you might want one of Bellavista's sparkling wines; I was much impressed by Franciacorta Bellavista Gran Cuvée Brut and Franciacorta Bellavista Gran Cuvée Pas Operé.

User Reviews