What’s Cooking at Petar’s?
LOBSTER LINGUINI
Serves 4
Pasta
100 grams of 00 (doppio zero) flour 50 grams semolina flour 4 large egg yolks 1 whole egg Teaspoon extra virgin olive oil Pinch of salt
Pasta preparation
Mix all the ingredients by hand or in a mixer and let the dough rest for an hour, covered with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dr y. Roll the dough to number 2 thickness on a standard pasta machine or manually 1/8 of an inch. Cut the pasta into 10-inch noodles.
Maine lobster
First, break the claws away from the lobster bodies, then separate the tail from the heads. Use heads for sauce (lobster stock) and cook the tails and claws in boiling water; tails 4 minutes, claws about 9 minutes. When removing the tails and claws from the boiling water, place them immediately in an ice bath for 7 to 8 minutes. Break the shell and save the meat (leave claws whole, tails cut in half lengthwise) to top linguini.
Sauce
¼ pound butter 2 lobster heads, cut in half and clean 2 onions, rough chopped 2 medium-sized carrots, rough chopped 5 large celery sticks, rough chopped 2 tablespoons tomato paste 3 cups white wine 2 quarts heavy cream (36 percent) Small bunch thyme
In a large pot, melt the butter and caramelize the lobster head, meat side down, at low to medium heat. Once the heads are nicely caramelized, transfer them to a different pot and simmer, covered with 5 cups of water, a few garlic cloves, one-quarter onion, half a carrot and one stick celery (lobster stock). In the same pot, where the lobster heads were caramelized, add the rough chopped onion, celery and carrots and cook for about 25 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for another 5 minutes at low heat, stirring frequently. Deglaze with the white wine and let all the alcohol cook out to almost dry.
Pour in the lobster stock, heads and vegetables, bring to boil, then add the cream and thyme. Stir and simmer for another 30 minutes at low heat, then strain the sauce through a fine strainer. To finish, boil the linguini for about 3 minutes, then strain and add to the heated sauce, add the lobster meat and remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste and arrange beautifully on a plate with herbs for decoration, if you choose.