Arthur’s Legacy
My grandmother never made anything pink. Certainly not her sauce. This dish has a more northern Italian influence. We rarely ever ate lobster in our house either. Well, until Arthur came into the family. Arthur was from the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. He was dating my sister Annette for quite some time. My mother figured since Arthur came from Coney Island he must be a connoisseur of seafood. I know he liked seafood. And that is all my mother had to know.
My mother cooked meals for Arthur that were fit for a king. And we got to eat those delicious meals as well. That might have been the first time I ever ate lobster in my life. Arthur would come over for dinner every Friday. Back then we never ate meat on Friday so my mother would make a seafood spectacular that made Arthur feel like he never left Lundy’s of Sheepshead Bay.
I would anticipate each meal when Fridays rolled along. Lobster fra Diavolo, Shrimp Scampi, Soft Shell Crab, Fish Oregenato, Baked Clams, Frutti di Mare, a virtual cornucopia of seafood delights. I have to say, those Friday meals with Arthur made me a seafood lover for a life time. And I learned to cook those meals watching my mother. Anything from the ocean was fine with me. And as far as Arthur was concerned, any family that cooked this well couldn’t be all that bad.
The seafood feasts ended when my sister and Arthur got married. My sister would not touch a fish. Arthur learned to like turkey roll.
Fettucine with Pink Lobster Sauce
- 2 (1 1/4 pound each) live lobsters
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed but left whole
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes to taste
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 – 28 ounce can plumb tomatoes, crushed with masher
- 1 pound fettucine
- 1/4 cup grated pecorino Romano Cheese
- 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
Fill a large pot with water. Bring the water to a boil. Do not remove the rubber bands from the live lobster. Rinse the lobster quickly. For those who are concerned about killing a live lobster, this might make you feel better. Research indicates the lobster has no central nervous system or cerebral cortex to register stimuli, thus the creature mostly likely can feel no pain. If you put the lobster into the boiling water head first slowly this should kill it pretty much instantly and prevent the tail from thrashing. Immediately cover the pot and cook the lobster for 9 minutes over high heat covered. Remove the lobster to cool and reserve the water for cooking the pasta. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the lobster water.
When the lobster has cooled remove the meat from the shells and chop into coarse pieces. Set aside.
Bring the lobster water back to a boil. Cover and let simmer until you are ready to cook the fettucine.
In a large saute pan, cook the garlic and red pepper in olive oil and butter until the garlic is just turned golden. Remove the garlic from the pan and discard. If you left the pieces large this should be easy to do.
Add the wine to the pan and cook down a minute or two. Add the crushed tomatoes and stir well. Cook for about 15 minutes on medium high heat. Add the pasta to the boiling water about now and cook till the fettucine is al dente.
Add the heavy cream and cook over low heat about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lobster meat. Drain the pasta and add the cooked pasta to the sauce and heat for about 2 minutes. Take off the heat and sprinkle on the grated Pecorino Romano cheese and chopped parsley.
Enjoy!
cookingitaliancomfortfood 
Wow…. This recipe is awesome! Lobster with pasta is always good. One of my favorites is Lobster Raviolis with vodka sauce. YUM! Love your blog. Just discovering it today! Going to add a link to it on my Italian Recipe site. http://spaghettisauceandmeatballs.com. My labor of love. My effort to keep my Italian grandmother’s recipes and tradition going on into the next generation. I’m going to add your blog to my list of amazing Italian food blogs. Really! This is a wonderful list recipes! Some great stuff here! I will be back. You have many Italian classics on here I want to try! Did not see any contact information on your blogs so just chatting with you here. Great work on the recipes! Ciao, Anthony
Anthony,
Not sure why I didn’t see your comment until now. Glad you like the blog. We seem to both be on the same path. It sure is a labor of love.
So glad you replied. You reminded my that I need to make this recipe!
Fettuccine with Pink Lobster Sauce for Christmas Eve!! Oh yeah!!!
We like to have Alaskan King Crab as one of our courses for Christmas eve. This will go well with that. We usually have about 7 courses for Christmas eve dinner. Printing this out now! YUM!
I really want to try this, but don’t think I could bring myself to kill the lobsters… Maybe I could substitute with pre-cooked? I don’t think it would turn out as good, though.
Amber, you are not alone. There are many people who don’t prepare lobster dishes at home because they can’t bring themselves to, well, snuff out a lobster. There are a few things you can do. You can place the live lobster in your freezer for 30 minutes and that will take care of it. Just don’t look in its eyes when you place it in there. Another thing you can do is have your fish monger steam the lobster for you and then all you have to do is shell it and continue with the recipe. It will turn out fine! Good luck. You can do it.
WOW! Came across this recipe by accident and so glad I did. My husband catches lobster off of Cape Cod Bay every weekend in the summer and I have run out of ideas on what to do with them. This sounds like a wonderfully delicious change and I will definitely give it a try. Thanks Peter!
Lisa, if at any time you are unsure of what to do with your lobster you can ship them down here! 🙂 Hope you enjoy the recipes.
Peter,
How may portions will this recipe yeild?
Thanks,
Dick
Dick, you can feed 3-4 people with this.
Peter,
Thanks for getting back to me, I love all your recipes. I am serving this for dinner, 9 people. Will double the quantity.
Regards,
Dickl
Peter,
If I buy lobster meat at the fish store and don’t use lobster water to boil the pasta, how will this affect the recipe.
Thanks,
Dick
As long as the lobster meat is fresh you should be fine. But there is a lot of flavor in the shells you will be loosing. If you have your fish monger steam the lobster you can take the meat out and boil the shells for a few minutes to extract the extra flavor in the pasta water.
Thanks for the reply. Will let you know how this turns out.
Dick
Can i make the sauce in advance?
Antonietta, you can make this a few days in advance and it will be fine.
Recipe is soooo yummy. Hoping not to insult you…..I added a chiffonade of basil just before serving.
No insult at all. That’s what cooking is all about, you have to add your own touches. Hope you enjoyed it!
OMG. Yum.
Just made this for my husband’s birthday dinner. I added shrimp to it. It was delicious. We all loved it. Thanks for sharing Peter. This will be a new favorite in my household. Thanks again!