Lobster Spaghettini (Italy)

The lobster & crab tank at the
hypermarché

This is one of the recipes that I was not looking forward to.  I've tried lobster in a restaurant before and wasn't too keen but the main fear behind this one was that you have to buy a live lobster. I really did not like the idea of having to boil a live lobster. 

Obviously, the need for a fresh lobster meant that this was a recipe best attempted during our holiday in France.   

As soon as we got it back from the shops, the lobster went into the freezer. Allegra's book says that this is the RSPCA recommended method for cooking lobster.  It sits in the freezer for 20 minutes before being put into the boiling water, ensuring that the lobster is unconscious at the time of death.  When the time came, I couldn't bring myself to touch the live lobster so my dad put it in the pot and I moitored it.  

I was surprised at how quickly it cooked and how little noise there was.  I had of course heard the myth that they scream when they're cooked, but there was no noise at all, so clearly there was no air in the shell to create the noise. 

When it's cooked, it comes out and sits for a while to cool.  While it's cooling, it's time to make the fish stock. This consists of chopped prawn (unpeeled) and your choice of stock vegetables boiling for a couple of hours and then draining the broth. The broth is then boiled down into a sauce for the pasta. 

When the lobster is cool enough to touch, you split it in half with a sharp knife.  I tried to do this part too but wasn't strong enough to crack the shell so I enlisted my dad once again.  

The inside of the lobster
and the eggs

Soph and dad had bought a cooked lobster before and split it so there was a little confusion when we cut into this lobster, since it looked considerably different.  There was a lot more red than there was in the last one, it took up most of the back of the shell. Between Soph and dad they decided that they must be eggs, and we must have had a female lobster. The thought of eating this didn't appeal to any of us so we scooped it all out and carried on.  



Once the stock has more of a sauce consistency, you cook the pasta in the water used to cook the lobster. This gives it a hint of a fishy taste which adds a lot to the pasta.  It's then tossed in herbs and the sauce and served over the lobster.  



Since the lobster was cooked so far ahead of everything else, it is buttered, covered with foil and put back into the oven for 10 minutes once the stock is ready.  

The best butter ever!

All in all, this took approximately 3.5 hours to cook. Which, in my opinion, is far too long to spend on a dinner. This is definitely a dish for a special occasion, as Allegra points out herself.  

When the time came to tuck in, we sat down with mum and dad, everyone excited to try this new experience.  As I expected, the lobster basically tasted like a giant prawn, which is another thing I don't like.  I think that the flavour of the pasta was great but far too time consuming - I was so tired by the time I sat down I wasn't even really hungry.  

Soph, mum, and dad enjoyed the lobster a little more. They said it was well cooked and clearly fresh, but everyone agreed that lobster thermidor would be better - although if they tried to make that themselves they may retract this statement.  The main difference was that the meat just didn't really taste of anything other than fish.