Linguine with Lobster in Creamy Lobster Broth

For New Year's Eve dinner last week, I boiled some live Maine lobsters from 99 Ranch Market. It was a simple but very delicious dinner. I clarified some butter to go along with the tender and sweet lobsters. The Mister cooked some corn and we heated up the leftover baked orzo from Christmas dinner. Indeed we were eating well that night.

But a rare occurrence happened. We had leftover lobster (gasp!). After some rough calculations (a guesstimate is more like it), we had at least 2 lbs of lobster left. That kind of thing just don't happen with me around. Ever see Daryl Hannah's lobster dinner scene in Splash? Okay, I don't use my teeth to break lobster shell but, well, let's just say I love lobster.

Anyway, since leftover lobster was such a foreign concept to me, I struggled a bit as to what to do with it. Yes, the simple thing would have been for me to just eat it (duh!) but I wanted to make something with it that both the Mister and I could have for dinner. Lobster ravioli? Yes, I love lobster ravioli but I just didn't want to work that hard to *make* pasta, but it did sound good. Pasta also sounded good and since I had saved some of the carcass for stock, I thought maybe a lobster linguine dish would be a good choice.

So off to the Internet to search for some recipes. I didn't find anything that wow'ed me but did get a couple of ideas as to what I wanted to make. I settled on making a creation of my own. I know, it was risky but the results were fantastic (at least to me and the Mister). I thought adding a bit of heavy cream (not too much) would smooth out the lobster stock, add some richness without the heaviness of a cream sauce. Worked perfectly. So here it is. Linguine with Lobster in Creamy Lobster Broth. Note that this is more of a broth rather than a sauce, not thick. This recipe will serve 2 (maybe 3 if with other sides).

Ingredients:

Lobster shells (I had shells from 2 lobsters; can also use shrimp or crab shells)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup white wine
6 cups water
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf

1 lb cooked lobster meat
2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper (you can substitute with other types of ground chili pepper or omit)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 lb cooked linguine
Fresh chives, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat (I used an 8-quart saucepan). Cook onion, carrot and celery until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the lobster shells and cook for a few minutes. Raise the heat to high, add the wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the water, garlic and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain stock and discard the stuff in the strainer. You'll have more stock than what the linguine dish will need but you can freeze extra stock for later use.

Bring 2 cups of stock to a boil in a medium saucepan and reduce to half, about 20 minutes. Whisk in the heavy cream and ground chipotle pepper. Add the chives and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble the dish, divide cooked linguine into 2 bowls. Add lobster meat on top of the linguine. Ladle the cream broth on top, covering lobster and pasta. Sprinkle with fresh chives.

Hope everyone's first full week in 2009 is off to a good start. Now go and eat well.