Oven Dried Tomatoes

I wish I have more time to post these in a more expeditious manner. For now, I have to get them up as time permits. Anyways, for Valentines Day this year I planned a four course meal for Diana. Actually I had a fifth course “option” that I was hoping to get to. Four courses though, as good as these were with wine and lovely company is nothing short of a perfect evening.

This was the first course. I stopped by Whole foods with the intention of getting a good dry aged steak (that would be the next post) and scallops for the first course. As luck would have it, due to the rough cold weather hitting much of the US recently, scallops were in short supply. What they did have was frozen and carried a very hefty price tag. However, Whole Foods was apparently running a special for Valentine’s Day. If you buy a dry aged steak you get a lobster tail for free! A quick change of plans and instead of scallops with butternut squash and chestnuts we ended up with this delicious dish.

I first set about making the pasta. This is a classic fresh Italian noodle with nothing but flour and egg. I rolled it thin and cut it into ribbons using the pasta machine. While the noodles were drying a bit I set about working on the lobster.

I had three tails total (one free with the steak and I bought two more…still cheaper than the damn scallops). I removed the tails from the shell and bagged them in aFoodsaver bag with plenty of butter and some fresh marjoram. I cooked them sous vide for around 15 minutes at 59.5 C per Thomas Keller’s Under Pressure. At that point the tails were perfectly cooked and juicy. To finish them off I seared them briefly in a mixture of butter, garlic, lemon zest and juice and another dose for chopped fresh marjoram.

The sauce for the pasta was built around the same flavors of the lobster. So, I melted butter with lemon zest, lemon juice and marjoram leaves. At the last moment I boiled the noodles and tossed them in the butter mixture. To give the pasta a neat presentation I rolled the noodles on the tines of a long skinny bamboo set of tongs and slid them onto rectangular plates. On top went the sliced lobster and a few leaves of marjoram. I am glad I portion-controlled the both of us. Fresh springy pasta, tender juice lobster seasoned perfectly with herbs, lemon and butter would’ve alone made for a royal dinner.

Course number two following the pasta was a very nice salad that for some reason I failed to take a picture of! It had a mix of baby greens including red kale and arugula. I used my mandoline to make paper-thin slices of persimmon. The whole thing was dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette and topped with shavings of Pecorino Romano.