It’s upmarket yet cozy, exactly like this lobster mac & cheese. This is one of my favorites because of the incredible flavor combination.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 4-quart casserole |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni
- 1 (2 pound) lobster, split
- 7 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cups milk
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 10 black peppercorns
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 pound shredded Gruyere cheese
- 3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup grated Romano cheese
- kosher salt and pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook elbow macaroni in boiling water, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Reserve 2 cups hot pasta water, then drain macaroni in a colander set in the sink. Rinse with cold water to cool; set aside.
- Pour reserved pasta water into the same pot and add lobster halves, cut-side up. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and steam until lobster meat firms and turns opaque, about 3 minutes. Remove lobster to a tray and cool for a few minutes, then remove meat and cut into bite-sized pieces. Reserve shells.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir onion in hot butter until onion is softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove onions to a small bowl; set aside. Place reserved lobster shells, milk, shallot, peppercorns, and garlic into the same saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Melt remaining 5 tablespoons butter in a separate saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour and stir until mixture turns pasty and light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a mesh sieve and slowly pour into flour mixture while whisking. Bring to a simmer over medium heat; cook and stir until thick and smooth, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Stir Gruyère, Cheddar, and Romano cheeses into thickened milk mixture until melted and smooth. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in reserved lobster meat, onions, and macaroni. Pour mixture into a 4-quart casserole dish and smooth the top. Sprinkle evenly with panko crumbs.
- Bake in the preheated oven until sauce is bubbly and the top is golden brown, 8 to 12 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 913 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 55 g |
| Cholesterol | 218 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 61 g |
| Saturated Fat | 30 g |
| Sodium | 1113 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 49 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
SMOKED – GLUTEN FREE OPTION: Swap Romano for Fontina and go with equal parts (3 cups) Old Crock White Cheddar and Fontina along with the directed amount of Gruyere. Use GF flour for the rue and Banza GF shells ONLY COOK THEM 4 MINUTES then cool immediately as they will degrade quickly if not firm when adding the balance of ingredients at the end. GF panko bread crumbs (lightly sprinkled over the top) as the cheese will crust up a bit as well. Indirect heat on the smoker for 20-25 minutes (300-350 degrees) with a rich hardwood (apple or cherry are perfect). Make a double batch cuz your your Gluten Free friends are gunna want more!
This was an excellent first attempt at lobster mac n cheese for me. I followed the reviews of others and doubled the milk (4c instead of 2) and I broiled the lobster with chipotle seasoning instead of steaming it plain. One other thing I added was charred jalapeno, diced really small, so the flavour was throughout and it cut through the creaminess really nicely. Everyone loved it and I’ll definitely make it again.
OMG! I used 50/50 Gruyère and Medium Sharp Cheddar with some hard Fontina as an accent. Steamed the Lobster tails, used the shells in half the pasta water to make the broth. I sweated a bigger portion of sweet onions in butter and white wine. I used small elbow pasta and topped with breadcrumbs. Nothing really remarkable about the tails but wish I’d had more to include in the dish. This turned out sooo good I’m going to try it again in a couple months just to make sure it’s not a happy mistake!
Truly gourmet! I have made this for large groups many times now. Add a cup of Chardonnay to the cheese stir step for exquisite richness.
i added nutmeg to the panko and steamed pumpkin bites to the mix … love this recipe and thank you ‘all recipes’ for all of your ideas
Excellent recipe! It came out great in spite of the fact that I am not a very good cook. The mixture with the cheeses, flour and milk was a little thick, so extra milk was added. This was a success the first try!
I added a little wine. Great recipe!
I made this Mac and Cheese w freshly caught Fl Lobster. I pan fried it, then folded in the other ingredients. I did need to add more milk, as the recipe states, mine was too thick! Still delish non the less!
Recipe easy to understand and complete. I substituted the Gruyere cheese for Swiss as I could find The cheese requested in the recipe it came out just as good in my opinion.
This was VERY tasty, but there are some issues. First of all, I added some bacon to the recipe because… it didn’t have ANY bacon in it. My complaint is that it is a bit of a complicated recipe, and it’s so expensive to make that refining it is cost prohibitive. I read over the recipe ahead of time and saw that there way a straining step involved. Because of that I chopped my onions rather course. Too late I realized that that was an ingredient not strained out. Though still tasty, the course onion detracted from the overall “feel” of the dish in the mouth. The other issue is the step that I had to add a LOT of extra milk to the cheese blend to thin it out just to be mixable with the pasta. Other than that the dish was really liked by my guests. My 4/5 stars is about the recipe it’s self and cost, not the flavor.
I used different cheeses but still was great.
Great recipe but I modified it a bit: I used chopped instead of whole lobster tail. My cheeses were medium cheddar and Gouda. The panko breadcrumbs didn’t toast fully so next time I’d mix it with shredded cheese.
Easy to follow. Hardest part is grating the cheeses. We added shrimp to the recipe. We also skipped the whole lobster and found langoustine Lobster in the frozen fish section in grocery store. Ill add a picture after it’s baked
Everyone raved! Will keep this & make it for all our family gatherings.
Add a tablespoon of truffle oil.
I made this for a friend’s birthday dinner, with the following modifications: I grilled the Lobster tails ( I split the top of the shells with kitchen shears and extracted the meat, but left the shells attached at the tip of the tail) over hardwood lump charcoal with Apple wood chunks mixed in, and served the lobster separate with drawn butter for dipping. I visited two grocery stores and neither had Gruyere cheese; being pressed for time, I substituted Baby Swiss in its place. I found the sauce mixture far too thick when the cheese was added – I had to add quite a bit of milk to get the right consistency. I also used way more than 3 tablespoons of Panko bread crumbs; probably closer to 2 cups – I piled it on fairly thick to make a nice crust, and I used Italian Panko for a little herb flavor twist. It was a HUGE hit; I’ve saved this one to my favorites and will make it again!
Flavor is great! BUT too much rue! I had to add a lot more milk, which was a shame because it diluted the flavor of the two cups I had simmered with the lobster shells. I will definitely make this again though.
The roux/milk ratio is way off, I added an additional cup of milk and 1/3 cup Sherry and it was still extremely thick. I reduced the cheese by about half. I skipped the steamed lobster and wisked some concentrated shrimp stock into the milk. Used a pound of lobster and 3/4 pound crab. I added a handful of chopped parsley to the mix. Overall it came out good but I’ll probably not make this particular recipe again. Something simpler next time.
Soooooooo decadent and delicious!!!!
This recipe, although labor intensive, was worth the time. It was very delicious and my husband loved it! However, the flour/butter ratio to the amount of liquid for thickening the sauce is too much. Rule of thumb is always 1 tablespoon of butter to 1 tablespoon of flour for thickening. This is how I prepared the sauce and it was quite creamy and thick enough. I also used lobster tails instead of whole lobster. Worked just fine. For the topping I used day old corn bread. Crumbled 1 cup fine and mixed with a tablespoon of butter. Worked great and had a good flavor. Will be making this again
I really enjoyed this, made it for Christmas Eve, so I didn’t mind the extra time it took. Definitely needed more milk though in the process of steaming the shells, peppercorns, etc.. But we all loved it, will make again for sure! And I ended up using shell shaped pasta like in the pic not elbows.