Lobster pomodoro with fresh linguini

     I would have liked to have made this linguini fresh, however with Waitrose being so convenient and supplying me with great fresh pasta, its hard not to buy it. I like this dish with linguini rather than tagliatelle or spaghetti, the sauce sticks to it really well and I find it jut the right thickness for the dish not to be too filling.

     Before you think you're about to spend a fortune on lobster, you're mistaken, you can buy fresh Maine lobster tails from Waitrose for £6.99 each, (cheaper than a good filet steak!). Also the beauty of this dish you don't 100% need one tail per person as the meat goes into the sauce, its up to you. For this recipe I did buy one tail per person which I found suitable. 

Ingredients 

3 Maine lobster tails (uncooked)

400g fresh linguini 

1 onion 

1 courgette 

1 red chilli 

2 cloves garlic

200g cherry tomatoes 

30ml double cream 

2tbsp creme fraiche 

zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon 

2 tbsp tomato juice or 1tbsp of tomato puree mixed with some water 

parmesan to top 

Method

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and drop the tails in (carefully!) and leave them for 4 minutes, remove them from the water and leave to cool, pick the meat off when the sauce is cooking so you don't burn yourself. Some scum will appear in the pan of water, thats fine, no need to even filter it off as the lobster are in the water for so little time. Picking off the meat can be problem, the easiest way to do it is to cut them down the back before cooking so you can snap them open when they're done. 

Dice the onion, finely chop the chilli (with seeds) and grate the courgette. This sauce is another dish that you can literally chuck ingredients into. The courgette for example here was something I just had in the fridge and it added a really nice texture and little variation of taste. Start by frying the onion, chilli and crushed garlic all tougher until soft, then add the grated courgette. Fry all of this until soft and then add the halved tomatoes, this won't look like a sauce yet (see below) but once the tomatoes cook for long enough the juice will come out and they will begin to disintegrate. After              cooking this for about 5 minutes add the tomato juice or puree and water mix. 

The sauce will then need a good stir and season, taste, but be weary that it is very spicy! Add the double cream and creme fraiche, both of these are being added as the double cream can taste too rich to be added alone, and the creme fraiche can taste too bitter with pasta, so a combination works perfectly. Taste after you have added the dairy bits and add more of either one you would prefer, its a personal thing! Add the lemon zest and juice now. The sauce will now actually look like a sauce. This can be left to simmer while the pasta cooks. As the pasta is fresh it gives you about 4 minutes to pick the meat off the lobster and add it the sauce. Don't worry if your lobster looks under cooked in the middle as it will continue cooking in the sauce. Add a little bit of the pasta water to your sauce if it looks too thick, and then add your lobster in. 

       Drain the pasta when done, and add the sauce to the pasta in the pan to get it all covered, serve and top with a very generous helping of grated parmesan, and enjoy!! 

Goats cheese and courgette open tart

I'd like to think of myself as quite an experienced little chef. Little both literally and metaphorically. So the other night I casually whipped up a little tart for dinner, full of fun flavours and cooking techniques to keep myself entertained. I used puff pastry (the easy stuff from the supermarket), covered the base with caramelised red onion, next came the balsamic courgette peelings and peppers, then topped off with a generous helping of goat's cheese and fresh tomatoes. 

The toppings of the tart need to be cool before putting onto the pastry, as it will start to cook, so be prepared for a little bit of pre cooking. All together the tart will need about 15-20 minutes in the oven at 200.C. 

Ingredients 

jusrol puff pastry sheet 

2 red onions, sliced

sprinkling of demerara sugar 

dash of maple syrup 

knob of butter

2 courgettes 

1 pepper (colour of your choice) 

splash of balsamic vinegar 

a handful of cherry tomatoes (7-9) 

small log of goat's cheese 

I have kept these ingredients vague as this is a kind of meal that really depends on what you want, I'm a huge cheese fan so really love to cover it, but you might be different so don't feel pressured into totally covering it. 

Method

Roll out the pastry slightly and put onto a dish. Slice the red onion thinly and fry in a hot pan with olive oil. The onion wants to be nice and soft, so turn the heat down and let it cook for a good 4-5 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn. The onion will be soft and look a little like tangled medusa hair for lack of a better description. Add a nice spoonful of the brown sugar and a knob of butter to get the onion coated. Once this has melted and been stirred around it all, add another spoonful of sugar, and a little dash of maple syrup for variation of taste. Taste the onion (it'll be really hot so careful!), depending on what you think add more sugar or remove from pan to cool. Don't worry if you think it is too sweet, the flavour is very subtle under the balsamic and goats cheese. Maybe even make it sweeter!! 

Use a handy peeler (every chef's best friend) to very thinly slice the courgette. Slice the pepper with a good sharp knife. Fry these together until soft, if they look as though they're frying and becoming crispy rather than soft, add some salt which draws out the moisture in vegetables and will make them more moist. When these are cooked, after about 4 minutes, add a dash of balsamic vinegar, it should want about 2 or three generous shakes. (about 2 tsp in the real world) and give them a stir. 

While you're waiting for your delicious toppings to cool, half your tomatoes and crumble your goat's cheese in your hands. 

Treat the tart almost like a pizza, so you're putting on your different toppings. Start with the onion and spread it evenly, then do your veg and then finally the cheese and tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. 

I like to score my pastry to make it look a bit prettier, and give it an egg wash to make it puff up nicely. (if you're in the awkward situation that you have no eggs, like I was last night, then milk will work just the same!)

Take out of the oven when it is puffy, the cheese has melted nicely and your kitchen smells like you want to eat it, enjoy!!