Have you planned your Valentine’s Day out with your sweetie yet? Have you not yet made reservations to one of the best restaurants in town? Not sure if the snow that just hit the east coast will prevent you from being able to go out? Or do you just want to have a nice candlelit dinner for two at home? How about trying out this hubby-approved recipe I found on {Half Baked Harvest} this Valentine’s Day. Since we got married, we started a tradition of doing a surf and turf Valentine’s Day dinner. The tradition really started because I saw that Safeway had lobster tails on sale and couldn’t resist taking advantage of the sale or the delicious seafood. Last year, we varied it a little doing surf and “air” having lobster tails and goose breasts. My husband loves to do waterfowl hunting and I cannot complain when he brings home delicious goose breasts and even cooks it up himself! This year, we celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early so we didn’t have to miss out on our opportunity to celebrate even though our schedules weren’t going to allow it on the actual day. The benefit of us doing it early, was that I got to try out the recipe myself and see what my husband thought, before posting on here for all of you to try as well. Hopefully your spouses will be just as pleased with this recipe. ENJOY!! And HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Equipment Needed:
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Large mixing bowl
- Large pot
- Large skillet
- Small skillet
- Baking sheet
- Olive Oil cooking spray
- Spatula
- Paper towels
- Spoon
- Measuring spoons and cups
- Large serving bowl
Ingredients:
- 4 slices of bacon
- 2 (4 oz) lobster tails
- 6 tablespoons butter, divided
- 4 cloves of garlic, pushed through a press or minced
- 1 bunch of Kale or about 8 – 9 cups, with stems removed and roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
- 1 pound of Pappardelle pasta
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved (I used yellow and red grape tomatoes for extra color)
- 8-9 ounces of fontina cheese, cubed
- 1/4 cup of fresh basil, chopped
- Shaved parmesan
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss together kale, olive oil, parmesan cheese, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until well mixed, about 1 minute. Spray baking sheet with a light coat of olive oil cooking spray and then spread kale on sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes until it is crispy. Mix kale once or twice while baking.
- In a large pot, bring water to a boil, add pasta and cook according to its directions. For pappardelle, it was 8 minutes.
- In the meantime, cut up the bacon into small pieces and add to a large skillet. Cook for about 7 minutes or until the fat has been rendered and the bacon is crispy. At that point, take the bacon out of the pan and put on paper towels to absorb the fat. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat from the skillet and dispose of the rest. Later, crumble the bacon into small pieces to put on top of your pasta mixture.
- For the lobster tails, place them on a cutting board shell up. Using a large knife, make a cut across the tail right above the fins at the bottom. Then, make a cut down the length of the tail cutting down to the perpendicular cut you made already. Spread apart the lengthwise cut you made in order to pull the lobster meat out and lay it on top of the shell. See photos below for illustration.
- Take the same skillet used for the bacon with the 1 tablespoon of remaining fat and heat over medium-high heat. Then add 1 tablespoon of butter to the skillet and heat while swirling around the pan to coat and mix with bacon fat. Season lobster tails with salt and pepper and then add to the butter coated skillet. Sear until the shells turn bright red, about 5-6 minutes. Once done, remove and set aside.
- Take the same skillet and add about one more tablespoon of butter and garlic cooking for about 30 seconds. Add to the butter the crushed red pepper and cayenne as well as a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes, mixing throughout. Then add and mix together the tomatoes and fontina cheese. Once mixed, remove skillet from heat and drizzle with lemon juice and add the crispy kale. Mix together and then transfer to either a large serving bowl or to individual bowls.
- In a small skillet, melt another 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat and heat until just browned. Whisk the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Once done, pour butter into a measuring cup with a spout to pour out of.
- Remove the lobster meat from the shells and place on top of the serving bowl or individual bowls. Drizzle the browned butter on top as well as the chopped basil, crumbled bacon, and shaved parmesan.
- You will have plenty of left over pasta after your dinner for two which is just as tasty afterward with shrimp sauteed in butter and garlic, with more lobster tails prepared the same way, or even chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder cooked using the {Perfectly Cooked Chicken | Every Time} post.
A Hint of Ginger 