you only turn 80 once

My mom had her eightieth birthday this month, and we are a small family, so I had to find a way to make it a special occasion for her without all the fun of a big party.  My brother came out for a visit, and I needed to plan a special dinner for my mom, Steve, Jim and me.  So I decided to go all out with a dish I had seen her relish in a restaurant in the distant past.

lobster in Parmesan cream sauce over homemade parsley fettuccine.

Warning:  This is not for the faint of heart -- on either a caloric level or a prep work level.    It is a beautiful dish to look at as well as to eat, and it will make a grand entrance at any table.  Much of the prep can be done in advance, which is a blessing.  I will divide the work into 4 separate steps, which is what I did, to attempt to preserve my sanity.

I will start with the pasta, which is deceptively easy to do.  It can be made early in the morning, and rest peacefully on the counter (away from sources of moisture) under a tea towel for many hours.

the dough starts with two whole eggs, a tsp of salt, 

and two big handfuls of parsley leaves in a food processor

blend them long enough to chop the parsley up a bit

all purpose flour is added until you have a crumbly mixture

Gather that mixture into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest while you straighten up a bit, clean the food processor, and set up your pasta rolling machine.  If you are a masochist, you can roll and cut the dough by hand.  I, however much I wish I were, am not channeling a little old Italian grandmother.

I divide that dough ball into thirds, cover two pieces, and begin kneading the other, which consists of flattening the ball until it will pass through the widest setting on the machine, and folding it in half and re-passing it through the widest setting until you have a smooth piece of dough with no holes in it that has the soft, non-sticky feeling of a piece of very soft leather.  You can work in a bit of flour if the dough is too soft and sticky to begin with.  I then knead the other two pieces, so I can do all of the stretching at once.

I have the pasta attachments for my KitchenAid, which has eight setting for thinness.  In this case, I wanted my fettuccine to have enough body to stand up to the substantial sauce, so I took the dough to the sixth setting, and then cut it.

as you can see, even at #6 setting, this is a very

fine dough -- you can see my fingers through it

Once the noodles are cut, they can be tossed in a bit of flour.  I like rice flour because it will rinse away cleanly in the cooking water, without adding a bunch of gluten to the water.  I find rice flour at my local market, with the international foods.

toss the noodles in plenty of rice flour and set aside

under a towel -- just toss them occasionally to be sure 

they aren't sticking together

Once you toss the noodles into boiling water, the rice flour will rinse away, the green of the parsley will brighten and set, and you will be left with a vibrant, beautiful green noodle -- the perfect foil for the pale cream and the pink lobster to come.

On to the lobster.  To simplify things, I bought a couple of tails, so I wouldn't have to deal with cracking and picking whole lobsters.  When you cook a tail, or a whole lobster for that matter, the tails will curl.  While it didn't really matter for this particular dish, I thought I would pass on a little trick to prevent that, and make for a prettier presentation.

using a small wooden skewer, the type satay is cooked on,

simply insert it at the base of the tail up to the top, which will

prevent curling during cooking

The best way, in my opinion, to cook lobster, is to steam it.  It minimizes the chance of water-logging the meat, and it is much quicker and more efficient than giant pots of water that must be brought to the boil.  Simply put a couple of inches of water in the bottom of the pot, and add a steamer basket.  If you don't have one of those, which I don't, a colander large enough to hold the tails will work fine.  Plop in the tails, crank the heat to high, and cover the pot.  A couple of giant tails like these take just 12 minutes.  Smaller tails would take less time.  Err on the side of underdone, particularly if the meat will be heated further, as they will continue to cook, and overdone lobster is easily mistaken for chewing on chunks of rubber eraser.

things of beauty, deserving of a moment of reverence.

Lobster trivia -- early settlers in Maine had so many lobsters wash up during storms, that they shoveled them off the beach, and fed them to the pigs.  The lobsters were considered not fit for human consumption.  It was actually considered abuse to feed prisoners lobster more than 4 times a week...though I will admit, I might consider that a bit much myself.

For this dish, the tails can be cooked a day ahead, cleaned, and cut into bite-sized pieces.

From there, the assembly of the sauce is as easy as it is decadent.  In a skillet or wide pot large enough to hold both the sauce and the cooked fettuccine, add about a half a cup of heavy cream per serving and set the burner on medium low heat.  Add kosher or sea salt to taste (I use about a quarter tsp per serving), and freshly ground pepper.  Grate in about a teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg (please do get a whole nutmeg.  You've just spent a fortune on the lobster, and fresh nutmeg is vastly tastier than its powdered counterpart.)  Then grate in the zest of a whole lemon.  A microplane zester is a cheap and effective tool for both of those jobs.  Stir in about a quarter cup of shredded parmesan per serving, and simmer the sauce until it just thickens slightly.  If the lobster meat is slightly undercooked, add it now.  If it is fully done, add it at the last minute, with the pasta.  

While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil, and add your pasta.  The fresh pasta will take just a few minutes -- usually under three, depending on how dry it is -- to become a perfect al dente.  Once the sauce will lightly coat the back of a spoon, toss in the well drained pasta, toss to coat, and turn it out on a nice platter.  Garnish with just a bit of finely minced fresh parsley, and a sprinkling of shredded Parmesan.   

so pretty, I couldn't help posting it again

I served this with a salad with goat cheese, walnuts, and figs, which is another post, and garlic toasts made by brushing toasted slices of good crusty bread brushed with olive oil infused with fresh garlic.  Oh yes, and champagne.  Happy birthday, Mom.