This is a take off on a dish I was taught several years ago by my mentor Chef, Jeff Pennington. In his application, there were only three ingredients, Galliano, Cream, and Lobster and it was incredible. Simple yes, but an experience I will never forget. What follows is the evolution of the recipe that I have brought it to based on my approach to the dish. The flavor profile is the same, however I feel that it is now a complete dish, not just something to throw together and eat during dinner service.
You really have more than one option on this dish. If making the ravioli doesn’t appeal to you it can also be made with a lobster tail, just cut in half and simmered in the sauce until it is cooked through. Or as pictured above, do both.
For the filling:
1 Lobster Tail diced
1 Teaspoon finely chopped chives
1 Teaspoon finely diced shallot
1 Teaspoon chopped tarragon
1 Tablespoon zucchini small dice
1 Tablespoon tomato concasee
2 Tablespoon marscapone cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Bring a quart of water to a boil, and cut the lobster tail in half and place in a non reactive pan. Pour the boiling water over the lobster tail, cover and let set for three minutes. Carefully remove the tail from the water, then remove the meat from the shell. Dice the meat neatly.
Combine all of the above ingredients in a small bowl and season using the Salt and Pepper. Once everything is combined nicely, carefully fold in the lobster meat.
Cover and set aside.
Fresh Pasta
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
¾ Cup Semolina Flour
6 Large Egg Yolks
1 Large Egg
1 ½ Teaspoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Whole Milk
Mix the two types of flour together and make sure they are mixed evenly.
Make a mound of the two flours on your work surface, then form a “bowl” in the top of it. Place all of the remaining ingredients in to this “bowl”. Using your first and middle finger begin to mix the wet ingredients stirring them inside the mound of flour. Little by little you want to bring some of the flour into the wet mixture until a dough begins to form. Once you’re able to actually wrap your hand around the ball of dough, begin to knead the dough, and incorporate as much of the flour in to it as you can. Make sure you knead the dough until it is smooth, and almost tacky to the touch. There is no need to be concerned with overworking this dough.
Once you have the dough a smooth consistency double wrap it in saran wrap and set it in the refrigerator to rest for at least 30 minutes. You can make this ahead of time, and place the dough in the refrigerator overnight, however make sure you allow the dough to come to room temperature before you start to work with it the next day.
Set the rollers on your pasta machine to the largest setting, and cut about a third of the dough away from the ball that you formed. Knead the dough out until it is able to fit into the pasta rollers and run the pasta through the first setting then fold in half and run through the first setting again (you may need to do this a few times). Then begin closing the rollers one setting after each pass of the dough. Until you have reached the desired thickness. I use the #3 setting as the final setting.
Lightly dust your working surface with some flour and lay your pasta sheets out. Have your filling setting close by, with a spoon in order to portion up the filling on to the pasta.
There are several ways you can do this next step. First you can do another sheet of pasta, place the filling on the first sheet, then cover with the second sheet, and cut your ravioli’s from here. Or you can place your filling on one half of the sheet, the fold it over and cut your ravioli’s from there. No matter how you chose to do this step, just make sure you paint one side of the pasta with an egg wash in order to create a good seal. These details are really up to the individual, however make sure you get all of the air out of each ravioli before cutting and sealing them.
Set the ravioli’s aside until you’re ready to make the dish.
Lobster Galliano- lets put it together
2 Teaspoons Canola Oil
1 Teaspoon Shallot diced
1 Tablespoon Mushroom diced (I use shitake)
3 ounces Galliano liqueur
4-6 ounces of Heavy Cream
Bring a pot of well salted water to boil.
Place a skillet on to the stove on medium high heat. Once the skillet is heated pour in the Canola oil and make sure it is heated through, then add the Shallot and Mushrooms. At this time drop three or four ravioli’s into the boiling water.
Saute the shallots and mushroom until they are softened then pour in the Galliano. If you’re working on an open flame, you will want to turn the flame off before doing this. Be careful, because this liquid will begin to burn off rather quickly.
Once the flame has died down, pour in about half of the cream, and lower the flame to bring the liquid to a simmer. Taste the liquid (be careful, it’s hot) and see if you need to add more heavy cream. Once you have the liquid where you want it as far as taste, pull the ravioli’s from the water, drain them, and add them to the skillet with the liquid. (the total cooking time on the ravioli in the water should be about 4 minutes).
Toss the ravioli in the sauce you just created in the skillet and then pour everything into a bowl for service.
I garnish this dish with a mixture of fresh tarragon, and micro basil lemon greens and a couple of sections of orange. However it’s just as good to grab a roll or a piece of bread and start eating away.
Enjoy
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