| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Inactive: | 40 min |
| Cook: | 20 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- Salt
- 2 (1 1/2-pound) lobsters
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- 1 large shallot, sliced
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 12 ounces high quality butter, cubed
- 12 ounces elbow pasta
- Lobster shells (from above)
- 2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 4 ounces high quality butter
- 8 ounces mascarpone
- Freshly ground white pepper
- Chervil, to garnish
Instructions
- For the lobster:
- Separate the tails and claws from the lobster and place the claws in a heat proof container large enough to cover completely with water, do the same with the tails. Bring a large pot of salted water up to a boil and pour over the tails and claws, let the tails sit for 6 minutes and the claws for 8 minutes, remove and plunge into an ice bath. When the lobster parts are cool, remove the meat from the shell. Keep the meat refrigerated and save the shells for the lobster oil.
- For the beurre blanc:
- Place white wine, vinegar, peppercorns, and shallots in a nonreactive pan and reduce down until au sec (almost dry), add the heavy cream and reduce down by 2/3 and drop in butter slowly, whisking constantly. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and hold warm till ready to use.
- For the pasta:
- Bring large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the elbow pasta for 1 minute less than the package indicates. Drain and cool and hold until ready for use.
- For the lobster oil:
- Take the bodies from the lobster and place in a pot with 2 cups of vegetable oil and bring up to very hot almost frying and let sit for 10 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon paprika and let sit for 30 minutes and strain through a fine mesh sieve or coffee filter.
- In a large saute pan, melt the butter and add the chilled lobster, when the lobster begins to warm add the mascarpone cheese and allow to melt, stirring constantly. Add the macaroni and just warm through and pour in enough of the Beurre Blanc to make it saucy. Season with salt and white pepper, to taste, and serve with chervil garnish and lobster oil.
Reviews
This is the best pasta preparation of lobster we have had. My sister inlaw is from Boston and they bring lobsters back on the plane to SC a few times a year. Every traditional Mac n cheese made with a mornay overpowers the lobster, or its to rich by the time you make a lobster stock or broth and reduce it down, yada, yada. If you are delicate, don’t over cook the lobsters when you parboil them. Really take the time to make a good b.b. its great. I will say, like others, I used less than one stick of butter in the whole dish. I used about 6 tbl spoons in the b.b. and then used about one to saute up and finish the lobster pieces, and I also used one to season the pasta so that it was almost a delicious dish on its own prior to mixing in with the Lobster and Marscp. This strategy made the LOBSTER the star and was a hit all around with the dinner party.
The dish is delicious and incredibly decadent, but I don’t think it’s really mac and cheese. Don’t expect a very cheese flavor to the dish, as the only cheese it uses is mascarpone. Instead, most of the flavor comes from the lobster, butter, and cream, which makes a great dish, just not what I would consider mac and cheese. I didn’t think the lobster oil added much to the final dish, as the subtle flavors were drowned out by the lobster itself. Would probably add less butter in the final assembly. Overall a great dish, I just wish it tasted more like mac and cheese.
A lot of recipes are rated as excellent when they are only worthy of 4 stars- good. This is really a 5 star dish- best mac n cheese I have ever put in my mouth. (And mac n cheese is my FAVORITE FOOD). It is not your typical ‘soul food’ mac n cheese, the recipe puts a delightful spin on an old dish everyone loves and somehow makes it better. It melts in your mouth- I can’t explain how wonderful this dish really is. If my waistline could afford it I would eat this dish every day! 🙂
This dish is well worth the effort to do it the right way, it’s fabulous. Otherwise let Frank make it for you in Denver. My lazy version is to make half the recipe, cutting the butter down to 4oz in the beurre blanc. It’s a small sacrifice in taste and texture, but it’s either that or mix in some Lipitor! With half the recipe two people can actually consume all of it in one sitting. This way you don’t have wasted left overs as it will not re-heat. The sauce breaks into an oily mess no matter how low and slow you try to warm it up on day 2.
whomever posted the last review with 1 star must have done something drastically wrong! we’ve made this twice and it is one of my favorite recipes…we are lucky enough to have Mizuna in Denver but won’t try this dish there….I know Frank’s will be better than what we do at home and I don’t won’t to ruin the perfection we think we have 😉 …maybe one day we’ll try the real thing…but until then this is a recipe we will make time and time again! a must make!!
Never in my life have I gone to such great lengths to distroy a perfectly good lobster! YUCK
I’d been wanting to try making lobster mac & cheese for some time, but when I found this recipe, I knew I’d have to have a good excuse to make something so rich. My husband was planning to ride in a 150-mile bike ride from Boston to Cape Cod to raise money for MS, and you KNOW you need to carb load before a trip like that, so…..
First of all, yes–four sticks of butter is a lot. But, you can easily justify it if you don’t serve this as a large entree portion. It may have a lot of fat in it, but it’s all there for a reason (flavor, texture, depth), and it’s important to the dish (and especially important to making a good buerre blanc!) Just plan to make the portions smaller than you might with a normal pasta entree, and pair it with a nice salad and seasonal veg side. I did an arugula, watermelon, red onion salad with fresh herbs and balsamic vinaigrette (June in Boston means a lot of nice arugula!)
I used medium-sized shell-shaped pasta instead of elbows, to reflect the spirit of the dish, and really liked the toothsome texture it added to the dish. The larger pasta shape nestled with some of the chunks of lobster and sauce nicely, too.
Didn’t have chervil in my store either, so I just snipped some chives from my garden. The fresh, green herbs and the smoky, red lobster/paprika oil really made for a beautiful, tasty garnish.
Going to try to reheat some leftovers today. Planning to re-heat on the stove at low heat, so as to not break the sauce, as would happen in a microwave.
What a great recipe….and with regard to Ryan’s review from Melbourne, FL-I heve never read anything so offensive on Food Network. His remarks obviously indicate he has the intelligence of a lobster at best.
Even my picky kids loved this. I think 12oz of butter to too much, next time will make the beurre blanc with less butter. Also used lump crab with the lobster. Didn’t make the lobster oil as I seasoned the lobster and crab water when cooking. Otherwise a great recipe, perfect for company!
My turn for dinner club and, oh joy, I get the chef in the group assigned to my house. I did a theme dinner of ‘classic pairings’: weenies and beans (chicken sausage in brioche and tuscan bean salad), tuna salad (nicoise with grilled ahi tuna), grilled cheese and tomato soup(roasted tomato and roasted yellow pepper soups with serrano cream and grilled eggplant, zucchini and smoked mozzarella mini-panini) with the grand finale being mac n’ cheese (lobster mac n’ cheese). I followed most of the recipe to the letter, except that I made a stock from the lobster bodies and shells, reduced it and added it to the beurre blanc and I made a chive oil instead of lobster oil (pretty green addition to the plate with a few roasted asparagus). The chef applauded and more than one guest was spied using a finger to get the lingering schmeer of sauce from the plate. My only complaint was that killing the lobsters with a knife instead of the old boiling water plung was the grossest thing ever. They keep moving for a long time. Ugh. Next time I’ll make my husband do that!