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Lobster Mac and Cheese

Here we sit. Straddling the edges of winter’s crustyiness and the cheery hopefulness that this past weekend’s gorgeousness delivered.

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This weekend was a blink of spring that had all of us who’ve been shuttered inside heading to the great outdoors to stretch our legs, breathe in deep and realize that summer is just one hopscotch jump away.

But, there’s still a bit of cozy comfort food I’m craving, that I’ve yet to have my wintertime fill of. I’m not quite ready to put away my braisers, or break out the grill. Yet.

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Which leaves plenty of room for a thoroughly decadent dinner. Comfort food with a swath of luxury. Lobster Mac and Cheese. It’s what’s on this girl’s menu.

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Lobster, shrimp, scallops, crab. Give me a shellfish paired with pasta and you’ve just made me a very camper.

Pair it with a creamy sauce and cheese and you’ve just sent me to the moon. A very lush moon. Where I smile a lot in between savory, happy bites of cheese drenched macaroni.

The mention of lobster shouldn’t put you in a tailspin with dollar signs replacing the corneas of your beautiful baby blues. With this dish, just one large lobster tail—or 2 small ones—will do the trick for the entire feast.

So that when you tell guests you’re having lobster for dinner, they think you’ve really gone all out.

When really, you’ve only gone half out.

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There are three things you want to be sure to do with this recipe.

1. Don’t overcook your lobster meat. Some stores carry it already cooked (Whole Foods sometimes offers it in their seafood section) but if you cook your own, steam it whole in the shell for about 7 minutes. That’s really all you need. Any longer and you’ll have a tough little crustacean.

2. Great cheese is the secret to a great Mac and Cheese. While gruyere is commonly paired with Lobster Mac and Cheese, I wanted to create a lighter, more silky sauce so I chose a meltable fontina with creamy Mascarpone (an Italian style cream cheese) with an edge of super sharp cheddar.

Other cheeses that would be good alternatives to fontina or gruyere are gouda, havarti and monterey jack. Just make them melty and make them good. I usually save mozzarella for my pizza or lasagna since it can become a tad stringy.

3. The final secret to this sauce is a dose of cayenne pepper. I add it right to the butter and flour roux and cook it into the mix as the flour browns. It adds a depth and almost a sweetness you’ll really love.

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It’s Mac and Cheese Mania, come on and join in.

This whole Mac and Cheese Mania shebang is the brainchild of Rachel of Rachel Cooks and Brandy of Nutmeg Granny and is sponsored by Door to Door Organics and OXO.

In their infinite wisdom, Rachel and Brandy spearheaded a food blogging campaign to inspire new Mac and Cheese recipe creations, to inpsire you to toss your recipe into the macaroni and cheesy hat.

Head over to Rachel’s site here and Brandy’s site here to link up your favorite / your best / your most craveable mac and cheese recipe and you could randomly be chosen to win one of a plethora of prizes listed on their sites. Like, there are some serious prizes to be had, so check them out.

Bonus: You don’t have to be a blogger to enter. Just a mac and cheese groupie. And really, who isn’t?

Hop over to see the other bloggers going all Mac and Cheese crazy too.

Jalapeno Popper Mac & Cheese by Heather’s Dish
Buffalo Cheddar Mac and Cheese by Eats Well With Others
Creamy Spinach Artichoke Macaroni and Cheese with Gouda by Sarah’s Cucina Bella
Light Sweet Potato Mac ‘n Cheese Recipe by Cookin’ Canuck
Macaroni and Cheese Fritters by Amuse Your Bouche
Skinny Chicken Mac and Cheese Casserole by A Zesty Bite
Creamy Pancetta + Leek Macaroni and Cheese by Simply Scratch
Smoked Bacon Mac and Cheese by Cravings of a Lunatic
Pizza Mac and Cheese by Very Culinary
Crab Mac and Cheese by Dine & Dish
Bacon & Eggs Breakfast Mac & Cheese by Sweet Remedy
Fried Mac & Cheese Balls by The Little Kitchen
Sweet Pork Macaroni and Cheese by Oh, Sweet Basil
Butternut Squash Quinoa Mac n’ Cheese Bake by Queen of Quinoa
Lightened Up Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese by Prevention RD
Butternut Mac and Cheese with Pretzel Crust by Healthy. Delicious.
Skinny Greek Mac and Cheese with Crunchy Pita Chip Topping by The Law Student’s Wife
Potato Skin Mac and Cheese by Eat Your Heart Out
Homestyle Baked Mac & Cheese by Pocket Change Gourmet
Bacon Mac and Cheese Egg Rolls by Miss in the Kitchen
Pepper Jack Mac and Cheese by Crunchy Creamy Sweet
Blue Cheese Bechamel Mac and Cheese by Sweetphi
Korean Mac & Cheese by Cooking with Books
Black and Blue Mac and Cheese by Fabtastic Eats
Tomato and Leek Mac and Cheese by Susie Freaking Homemaker
Healthier Mac & Cheese with Chipotle Peppers by Go Gingham
Mac and Cheese Ice Cream by Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body
Blue Cheese & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese by Gimme Some Oven
Poutine Mac and Cheese with Andouille Gravy by Climbing Grier Mountain
Double Smoked Chicken Mac and Cheese by Girl Carnivore
Creamy Greek Yogurt Mac and Cheese with Peas and Bacon by Running to the Kitchen
Nudel Gratin by Crumbs and Chaos
Mushroom and Truffle Sea Salt White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese by Big Bear’s Wife
Roasted Poblano and Goat Cheese Mac by Daisy at Home
Creamy Cauliflower ‘n Cheese with Bacon by Barefeet in the Kitchen
Wisconsin Cheese, Brats, and Onion Macaroni and Cheese by a farmgirl’s dabbles
Spinach Queso Mac & Cheese by Bake Your Day
Roasted Garlic Mac and Cheese with a Pancetta Parmesan Crust by Mountain Mama Cooks
French Onion Mac & Cheese by Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts
Healthier Macaroni and Cheese by Texanerin Baking
Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese by CafeTerraBlog
Macaroni and Cheese Stuffed Peppers by Cook the Story
Jack Daniels Mac and Cheese by The Slow Roasted Italian
Green Chili 5-cheese Baked Mac and Cheese by A Southern Fairytale
Homemade Elbow Noodle Tutorial + a Recipe for Roasted Veggie Mac by Bakeaholic Mama
Salsa Verde Mac-n-Cheese (two ways) by Eat2Gather
Cauliflower Mac and Cheese with Crispy Panko Topping by The Lemon Bowl

Now, those are some Mac and Cheese flavors that would hightail any winter into reverse and put springtime light flavors on definite hiatus. **Hold, please.**

I hope you take the time to visit them all, and also, my recipe for Lobster Mac and Cheese.

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Lobster Mac and Cheese

Ingredients

  • 1 pound pasta I used conchiglie, but you could use elbows, shells or capatappi
  • 6 tablespoons butter divided
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 3 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 3 cups fontina cheese shredded
  • 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese shredded
  • 8 ounce tub of mascarpone cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 small clove garlic pressed or minced
  • 1-2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • 1 pound cooked lobster meat cut into bite size chunks
  • parsley chopped, for garnish

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Cook the pasta to package directions in salted water, make sure the noodles are al dente. Drain and set aside.
  3. While pasta is cooking, prepare the cheese sauce. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Add the cayenne pepper and cook over medium-low heat for about 3-4 minutes, whisking, until the flour mixture becomes light brown in color. Add the milk while whisking and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens, whisking often. Lower the heat to and cook for about 10 minutes, whisking occasionally.
  4. While cheese sauce is cooking, prepare the breadcrumb topping. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small fry pan over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the breadcrumbs and raise the heat to high and toast for about 1 minute before stirring. Continue until the bread crumbs become toasty. Stir in the lemon zest and season with kosher salt and remove from heat to cool.
  5. Once the sauce has thickened, remove from heat and stir in the mascarpone until melted. Add the fontina and cheddar cheese and stir to melt. If the cheese isn't melting, turn the burner on low and heat until the cheese melts and becomes smooth with the sauce.
  6. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and stir to combine, getting the cheese in all of the nooks and crannys of the pasta. Gently fold in the lobster meat.
  7. Spoon the pasta into a 9 X 13 baking dish or 6 - 8 2 cup gratin dishes. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top of the pasta and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the pasta is bubbly and lightly browned on top.

Recipe Notes

adapted from Fine Cooking magazine

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Comments

  2. Oh my! This mac and cheese is so decadent…I need a giant bowl! I was happy the weekend was warm but I’m also happy it’s still winter. That way I can eat this and not feel guilty :) Thank you for joining in on the fun!

    Reply

  5. I LOVE lobster mac and cheese. I’ve found handful of restaurants who have it on their menu, and a couple of them have nailed it. The others though, left me extremely disappointed! :-)

    For some reason I’ve shied away from preparing it…I’m not exactly sure why that is…

    This looks fabulous… I think I may need to give this a try. Like soon…

    Your photos are just beautiful.. Seriously…the one of the lobster should be framed!! Just gorgeous!! :-)

    Reply

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  34. Hi there…this is the first recipe I’ve tried from your blog! And it was DELICIOUS and perfectly balanced! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  35. I made this tonight and it was divine. I traveled to Boston last month and had some lobster mac and cheese that was really tasty, and I’ve been craving it ever since. This was even better! They don’t sell fontina here (at least in the part of New Zealand where I live) so I used gouda and it turned out great. The kids ate it and my husband had thirds. Success! Thanks for the great recipe.

    Reply

  36. There is a reason why I bought a Mac, it was not to be one of the cool kids that wanted the best of the best. No it was because of the music production I do on it. Hours and hours sitting in front of my Mac copying, pasting, moving, deleting, hour after hour just beating on my Mac in a endless assault to get my work done. That is the key part, my work. I work from home, it is great, but even if it is from home it is still work and it still needs to get done. So my Mac, I have it because it is fast, gets the job done and comes back for more.

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    Reply

  37. Can this dish be prepared the day before and popped into the oven to cook before guests arrive, or will the pasta suck up all the sauce overnight?

    Reply

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