Luxurious Lobster Pasta With Champagne Cream Sauce

How to Make Lobster Pasta with Cream Sauce

This is a recipe I've been experimenting and tweaking for years. It's the one I pull out when I want to impress my very foodie family. It's the one I made when I made fresh pasta by hand for the first time. It's the recipe that actually introduced me to lobster in general. So, I know my way around this dish, and after reading this, you will too. It's the kind of dish that you whip out on a Friday night after a looonnnnnng week at the office because you deserve it, or because you *may* have taken some liberties when you were talking about your cooking skills and whelp, now you need to back them up. This is it. This is the dish.

Flavours

First, let's talk about the flavours we're using to put this lobster pasta together. Because there are some really, really great flavours going on here.

Lobster: Obviously. Lobster is famed for it's delicately sweet flavour and tender flesh. It tends to have less of a "fishy" flavour than crab. This is the building block from which we build the rest of our profile.

Garlic and Shallot: These are go-to aromatics for almost any pasta dish. We'll use less garlic than we would for say, a tomato based sauce - the lobster should be the star here, not garlic. Shallots are perfect because they have a much more mild flavour than onion, perfect to highlight but not overpower our main ingredient.

Cherry Tomato: Tomato and lobster is a great flavour pairing, but we need to make sure that the tomato doesn't crush everything with it's flavour. That's why these fresh, delicate cherry tomatoes are going to do the trick. We'll sautee them until they start to burst and release their juices, and that's going to be the perfect amount of tomato-yness to add to the dish. Bonus: it turns the sauce a beautiful blush pink, perfect for Valentine's Day!

Champagne: Aside from the fancy-pantsness it brings to the dish, a dry champagne or sparkling wine makes a great foil to the rich sauce we're building. It's going to add acidity (not unlike a lemon juice would do) and a complexity that we wouldn't otherwise get. Plus, it means it pairs well with this meal, and I mean...who doesn't like drinking champagne while you cook? Serial killers, that's who. If you don't have any sparkling on hand, it's totally fine. Just substitute for any dry white you have on hand (chardonnay is a good choice for this).

Parmesan: As per usual, bringing the salty, umami complexity to the party.

Lemon Zest: Hear to brighten up an otherwise extremely heavy, fatty dish.

Tarragon: This is optional, but I highly recommend it. Tarragon is an herb that has an anise flavour, so it tastes subtly like black licorice. Again, we're adding to the complexity of the dish here. A handful of tarragon leaves at the end takes this dish to a new level.

Where to Get Lobster

The best place to get lobster is at your local fish market. They usually have access to the freshest meat possible, and sometimes they'll even pre-cook it for you. They're also awesome to answer any questions you might have, including cooking, storage and freezing tips. You can also head to the seafood counter at your local grocery store.

Using fresh, just cooked lobster meat is totally the best way to eat lobster, bar none. So if you have the option and are feeling ambitious, then make and break down the lobster yourself.

If you're not feeling totally ambitious (hi, it me), then you can buy frozen lobster meat from places like Costco, or even your local grocery store. It usually comes in cans or in vacuum sealed packs, but it will be frozen. DO NOT buy the stuff in the cans right beside the tuna.

What to Serve With Lobster Pasta

First, let's talk about the wine. The easiest and most obvious is to use the same wine you cooked the pasta with. I'm a firm believer in there being no such thing as "cooking wine" and "drinking wine". If it's not good enough for you to drink, why in the heck would you want to put it in your food? Spring for the good stuff with this dish. If you're not going with a dry sparkling wine, try a buttery Chardonnay (butter, lobster, hello).

In terms of a side, something lighter and green is definitely a good choice. Lobster and asparagus are best friends, and a salad is always a good choice. Try warm zucchini salad with mint and pistachios.

FAQ's

Where can I find lobster? The best option is at your local fish market. They have the freshest product and the most knowledge. You can also find frozen lobster at grocery stores and Costco.

What's the internal cooking temperature of lobster?140°F.

What wine goes well with lobster pasta? A dry sparkling wine like Champagne, or a buttery Chardonnay.

How big of a lobster should I get? Get one in the 1-2 pound range. Any bigger and the meat starts to get tougher and less sweet.