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!!