Lobster pasta with porcini and tarragon cream sauce

Did you know that lobsters mate for life? And that you can actually see lobster “couples” walking around, holding each other’s claws? That’s something I learned from watching TV the other day, right after I made a wonderful pasta dish with 2 lobster tails.

For a moment I had double thoughts about eating my lobster pasta, but after my husband pulled out a nice bottle of wine, and the smell of porcini-based cream sauce continued to fill the room, I filled two large plates with lobster pasta and served them on our dinner table.

I have to confess here – I’ve actually learned these lobster “facts” from Phoebe Buffay. You know that “Friends” episode, where Phoebe talks about lobsters falling in love and elderly lobster couples holding claws as they’re walking around the tank….  and then she calls Ross a Rachel’s lobster.

Makes 3 servings or 2 very large servings

1) Boil water in a pan, throw 2 lobster tails and cook them for 5 to 10 minutes until they just turn red/orange color.  Remove from heat.  Using tongs, remove lobster tails to a separate plate.

2) When cool enough to handle, remove meat from the shell, discard the shell.

3) Cut lobster meat into bite-size pieces, meat will be uncooked in the thickest portion of the lobster tail, which is OK, because we will continue cooking the lobster in the sauce.  For now, cover lobster meat and set aside.

4) Heat olive oil in a large pan, add diced onion and cook on medium heat until translucent, about 10 minutes.

5) Chop fresh Tarragon finely and add to the pan, stirring well with onions.   Add chopped garlic.  Add wine and continue cooking on medium heat, constantly stirring until wine is reduced to syrupy consistency.

6) Cut 12 grape tomatoes in half and add to the pan.

7) Add heavy cream and bring to boil, then reduce to simmer and add porcini cubes, stirring until cubes are completely dissolved.

8) Add 1/8 tsp of Tumeric, stirring well.  Cook the sauce on low for 15 minutes.  Then add lobster  meat and cook the sauce with lobster meat in it for 15 minutes more, to infuse the flavors.  Remove from heat until you have pasta ready – you don’t want to overcook lobster meat and overharden it.

9) In the mean time, bring a large pan of water to boil, add pasta and cook according to pasta directions.  For this dish, I selected Tomato Basil Garlic Fettucini which was a perfect match for the sauce.   If you can find this kind of pasta, it’s definitely worth using it – I purchased it at Whole Foods.  Once pasta is cooked, rinse it quickly with cold water.

10) Add pasta to the pan with the sauce, stir sauce with pasta over medium heat until sauce coats pasta, about 5 minutes.  Cut each of the remaining 9 grape tomatoes in half.

11) To serve, prepare 3 large plates.  Place pasta coated with sauce and lobster meat into each plate.  Put 1/3 of cut grape tomatoes over the top of each pasta dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Drinking white wine as you eat will not hurt the dish.

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