A slightly tweaked version of Sweet Paul’s amazing Lobster Mac and Cheese recipe! In the creamy-versus-crusty debate, I’ve always been firmly on the crusty side, so I tweaked the quantities here ever so slightly, to make it slightly less creamy and saucy and to have just a few crispy edges. We ate this with a cucumber salad, one I didn’t get a chance to photograph, but it was kirby cucumbers with leftover grilled corn and grilled green beans.
Ingredients:
1 lb bag of large pasta — I highly recommend toscani or campanelle
3 tablespoons butter
1 large shallot, finely chopped
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
4 ounces of Gruyère or Comte, grated
4 ounces of sharp white cheddar, grated
1 ounce of Parmesan, grated
salt & pepper, to taste
1 lb of lobster meat or the meat of 2 cooked lobsters, coarsely chopped
Preheat oven to 350°F.
I found mis en place really helped with this: Chop the shallots finely; grate all of the cheese; measure out the flour, mustard, and milk
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain in colander and return to stockpot.
Saute the shallots in the butter over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes in a large sauce pan until soft and slightly just starting to brown
Add flour and stir for 1 minute until combined, slowly whisk in milk, and continue to whisk until sauce come to a slight boil and begins to thicken
Remove from heat and whisk in mustard and grated cheeses until smooth and then taste and add salt and pepper
Mix in pasta and lobster and pour into a large baking dish and sprinkle with chives
Bake until golden, about 25 minutes, depending on the size and depth of your backing dish
Makes 6-8 servings — depending on your level of hunger, self-control, and whether or not your little cousins have famously large appetites like mine do.