In this video, get a restaurant-quality seafood dish at home with Chef John’s Lobster Stuffed Pasta Shells! Tender pasta shells are filled with a rich, creamy lobster mixture, then baked in a luscious sauce until perfectly golden and bubbly. This elegant yet easy recipe is perfect for date night or a special occasion.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Lobster Stuffed Pasta Shells for Two!
00:09That's right, we're moving a little bit of lobster from one kind of shell to another
00:13to create one of my favorite baked seafood pasta dishes, which I think you, and hopefully
00:18someone very close to you, will love just as much as I do.
00:21And to get started, we'll do one optional step, which is wilting a couple cups of baby
00:26spinach in a dry pan set over medium-high heat.
00:30You can make these shells without it, but I think they look and taste better with it,
00:35plus it only takes a few seconds.
00:37And just as soon as that spinach is 90 to 100% wilted, we will transfer it into a strainer,
00:43and we will let that drain over a bowl.
00:45And once it's cool enough to handle, we will squeeze the water out and give it a chop.
00:50And that's it.
00:51Once our spinach is set, we can move on to prep our lobster tails, which first involves
00:55removing the meat from the shell, which I like to do by cutting open with scissors.
01:00Okay, we'll snip up one side, and then snip up the other, at which point it's going to
01:04be pretty easy to separate the meat from the shell.
01:07Oh, and don't throw away the shells, since we're actually going to use those to flavor
01:11our sauce, which you will see later.
01:13And once that meat's been removed, just like when we're peeling shrimp, we have to double
01:17check we don't have to devein them, which is not a vein, it's a digestive tract.
01:22And even if you don't see the vein, there might be some little grit here and there,
01:26so generally it's not a bad idea to give these a quick rinse after they've been peeled.
01:31So we'll go ahead and do that to two lobster tails, which we will then chop up into nice
01:35small pieces before we make the filling.
01:37And by the way, these are two different lobster tails.
01:40That first one I prepped I used for a little lobster toast experiment, which I'm still
01:44working on.
01:45And the only reason I even mention that is because the lobster tails I'm chopping now
01:49have a slightly different, little bit pinker color than the first one, which is very common.
01:54So if you see a little color variation, don't be concerned.
01:58But anyway, like I said, we'll give that lobster meat a nice chopping, at which point we'll
02:02transfer that into a bowl and add the rest of the filling ingredients, which will include
02:07that spinach we prepped, that as I mentioned was squeezed dry and chopped up.
02:12And then I think we want a little bit of lemon zest involved here.
02:15Alright, not the juice.
02:16I don't think we want that sharp acidity, but rather just a little bit of that lovely
02:20fragrant lemon flavor.
02:22I'm also going to toss in a generous amount of minced garlic before adding some ricotta
02:27and mozzarella cheese.
02:29And I know you heard never to mix cheese and seafood, which I think is correct for something
02:34like say, gorgonzola.
02:36But these cheeses basically taste like cream, and we use cream in seafood all the time,
02:40so I think it's fine.
02:42And that's it.
02:43We'll finish up by seasoning with some kosher salt, a few shakes of cayenne, and then last
02:48but not least, a little bit of smoked paprika, also known as the bacon and spices.
02:54And that's it.
02:55We'll take a spoon and give this a thorough mixing.
02:57Oh, and I should mention, if you can or don't want to do lobster, this will work with the
03:02same amount of raw shrimp, or some cooked crab, or a combination.
03:07But personally, I don't think there's anything like this pure lobster version.
03:11And then once we do have that mixed up, we'll pop it in the fridge, and we'll move on to
03:15prep the sauce we're going to cook our shells in.
03:18Which starts by adding our cut up lobster shells I told you to save, to some melted
03:22butter over medium high heat.
03:23And yes, as you can see, we cut those shells into like one inch pieces.
03:28And we'll cook that stirring for a couple minutes, until the shells turn that beautiful
03:31orangey red, and your kitchen fills with the aroma of roasted lobster.
03:36And once that happens, we will toss in a rounded teaspoon of tomato paste, and we will cook
03:41that stirring for about 30 seconds, just to take off that raw edge, and make it a little
03:46more savory.
03:47And once that's been accomplished, we will transfer in one cup of heavy cream, plus a
03:52splash of cold fresh water, that we'll use to rinse out the measuring cup.
03:57And we will give that a stir, and we'll wait for that to start to boil, and while it does,
04:02we can season this up with a pinch of salt, and maybe a couple shakes of cayenne.
04:07And then what we'll do once this is boiling, is let it cook for a couple minutes, or until
04:11it reduces slightly, and thickens up a little bit.
04:15And even though this is very quick to put together, and the shells are not in the cream
04:19that long, you're going to be shocked at exactly how much lobster flavor gets infused.
04:24I mean, I always am.
04:26But anyway, like I said, we'll let that boil for a couple minutes, or until our cream thickens
04:31slightly, at which point we will carefully strain this, and that is now ready to use
04:36to cook our shells in, which we could have done simply in some reduced cream, but that
04:41little bit of extra effort we did, using the shells for the sauce, really does make a tremendous
04:46difference in the final product.
04:48But anyway, you decide.
04:49I mean, you are, after all, the boss of your hopefully lobster-flavored sauce.
04:55And that's it.
04:56Once our sauce is set, we'll go ahead and cook our pasta shells.
04:59And as usual, we'll do that in some generously salted water.
05:03Oh yeah, when you cook pasta, the water should taste like seawater.
05:07And if you're feeling lucky, cook the exact amount of shells you need.
05:10But I like to hedge my bets, so I always cook a few extra, just in case a few break or crack.
05:16Oh, and since we're going to bake these, we don't want to cook them fully tender, so we'll
05:20subtract two minutes from the suggested cooking time on the package.
05:25And once those have cooked long enough, we'll fish them out into a bowl of cold water, which
05:29not only is going to stop the cooking process, it's also going to help rinse off a little
05:33bit of the starch.
05:35And that's it.
05:36Once cool, we'll drain the shells, and we'll grab our filling, and a spoon, and we'll fill
05:40exactly eight of these.
05:43And as you're doing this, make sure your filling's going all the way inside, and you don't have
05:47any air pockets at all.
05:49So make sure it gets in there, and gets in there deep.
05:53And once filled, you can probably even get another half spoon on top.
05:57OK, the ingredient amounts provided in the recipe should be enough to fill eight of these
06:01shells very, very generously.
06:04And that's it.
06:05Once our shells have been stuffed, we will transfer about three quarters of our lobster
06:09cream into an appropriately sized baking dish, at which point we will transfer our stuffed
06:14shells in, and then space those as evenly as possible.
06:19And it doesn't matter if your dish is a square, or a circle, or a rectangle, or an oval.
06:23What we're after is something that fits our eight shells in nice and snugly.
06:27All right, we want them so they're just about touching, but if there's like a half inch
06:31of space in between, that's fine.
06:34And once we have those placed in, and arranged just so, we will top each one with a little
06:39bit of mozzarella.
06:40All right, not a ton, but just enough to cover.
06:44And then what I like to do after that, is drizzle over a little more of the sauce, which
06:48I guess we could apply before we add the mozzarella.
06:52But just intuitively, I feel like I want to moisten the cheese a little bit with this
06:55cream.
06:57Although it's hard to put into words exactly why I think that.
07:00So just do it.
07:01And then after those have been sauced, we'll go ahead and grate over a little bit of parmesan,
07:06for a little bit of extra flavor.
07:08Plus it tends to give the surface a little nicer appearance if we do.
07:12Speaking of which, whenever I put something like this in the oven, I always feel like
07:16I should drizzle the top with a little bit of olive oil, or melted butter.
07:20So that's what I did.
07:21But these are plenty rich enough, so you can skip that step if you want.
07:26And that's it!
07:27These are now ready to transfer into the center of a 375 degree oven, for about 25 or 30 minutes.
07:33Or until the top starts to brown, and everything's cooked through.
07:37And they hopefully look like this.
07:39And then if we want, we can serve them exactly like this.
07:43But I'm going to finish up with another sprinkling of cayenne over the top, since I want these
07:47a little bit spicy.
07:48But also that cayenne's going to make these look even more lobster-ish.
07:52And that's it!
07:53We'll finish up with a pinch of parsley.
07:55And that's it!
07:56Our lobster stuffed pasta shells are ready for you, and anyone lucky enough to be doing
08:01you, to enjoy.
08:03Which of course, you're going to do beautifully plated, next to a nice green salad or something.
08:07All right, I didn't have one of those, so I'm just going to spoon one up.
08:11And of course, you're going to spoon plenty of that lobster cream from the baking dish
08:14over the top.
08:16And that, my friends, really was fantastic.
08:18All right, as a fan of lobster, and a fan of any kind of baked stuffed pasta, that was
08:24an absolutely perfect bite of food.
08:26All right, while the texture is different, what this really does taste like is lobster
08:30bisque, which is one of my favorite things to eat.
08:33And if you enjoy that also, you are really, really going to love this.
08:38And I know I said the spinach was optional, but I've changed my mind.
08:42You and your lover are definitely going to want to include the spinach, since I think
08:46it really does make this much more special, not to mention more beautiful, and more nutritious.
08:52So to summarize, I really do love everything about this.
08:54And whether you eat this alone, or with somebody special, it is a relatively easy and elegant
09:00dish to make.
09:01And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
09:05So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
09:09more info, as usual.
09:10And as always, enjoy!
09:11And as always, enjoy!