Lobster Ravioli in Saffron Cream Sauce

Ingredients: 

2 medium sized lobsters 

1 1/2 cups of fresh ricotta cheese 

1 shallot 

Saffron 

1 pint of heavy cream 

2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste (buy a 6 ounce can, I use Red Pack) 

6 eggs 

3 cups of flour 

1 cup of semolina 

Directions: 

1. Stop by your local fish market and pick out two lobsters. They will steam them there for you. 

2. Make the dough. You will need two kinds plain and a red pasta dough: 

Plain: 

1 1/2 cups of 00 flour 

1/2 cup of semolina 

3 eggs 

Combine ingredients and knead. Cover in Saran Wrap and let sit for at least 30 minutes. 

Red: tomato

1 1/2 cups of 00 flour 

1/2 cup of semolina

3 tablespoons of tomato paste

3 eggs 

Mix the eggs and tomato paste together first. Incorporate the flour. Add more flour as needed. Knead until uniform. Cover in Saran Wrap for at least 30 minutes. 

3. Cut the lobsters. Remove the claws and set aside. Turn your lobster over belly facing up. Pull the tail apart from the body by bending the belly upwards separating the body from the tail.Discard the top portion. Take a knife and slice down the underside of the tail. Remove the meat and place into a bowl. Do the same thing for the second lobster. Clean the tails from any of the green goo from the body. Shred the lobster meat and mix with the 1 1/2 cups of the fresh ricotta. Leave chunks of lobster without leaving them too big that they could break the pasta. Cut up the shallot very fine and add in about 1-2 teaspoons depending on how much you like shallots. Set the mixture aside. 

4. Prepare the dough. Roll out the plain pasta. Cut off a 2 inch peice of dough. Cover the remaining portion and return it to the refrigerator. Begin to flatten it with your hand. Using a pasta machine, roll it through the largest setting. Depending on how well you oringially kneaded it, you can repeat his step a few times, folding it on itself let to give it a good kneading now. Once you determine it to be ready for rolling, send it through the machine lowering the setting each time. Continue to do this right up until the second to last setting. Cut the pasta to fit the size of the ravioli mold. The last setting will be too thin. Set the pasta aside. 

5. Working quickly so the plain pasta does not dry out, repeat the process using the red pasta dough. Cut into 1/5 inch strips and using a brush and water glue the red lines into the plain pasta to mimic the look of a lobster. 

6. Forming the ravioli. Using the ravioli mold, take the striped side and place that side down into the well floured ravioli mold. Press down into the holes gently to ensure everything is correctly positioned. Add the filling. Take the second peice of plain pasta and lay it over the filled raviolis. Using a rolling pin, press firmly and roll the pin along he mold to seal the mold. Turn it upside down and gently seperate the ravioli. Place into a well floured plan with either rice flour or semolina. Using a brush, brush off the flour from the top of the stripes so that it is neat and clean. Continue this for the remaining pasta. Get creative and alternate. You can use the tomato as a contrast and make plain red ones so they look nice next to the stiped ones. 

8. Prepare the claws. Holding the claw upright, bend the "thumb" of the lobster, the little claw away from the joint. One swift yet gentle motion should remove the shell leaving the meat behind. The meat is all one peice so removing the claw doesn't break the meat. Then taking a kitchen scissor cut the claw along the thinnest part to remove the meat in one peice. Some claws you don't even need to cut and you can pop out the bottom once you remove the inferior claw. Set aside. 

9.  In a medium saucepan, heat the pint of heavy cream and saffron. Bring to a boil until the cream becomes yellow and reduce the heat to medium and summer until thickened. Remove from heat when you begin heating the water for the ravioli. It will thicken as it cools. 

10. To cook the ravioli, bring a large pot of water and salt to a boil. Drop the raviolis in. They will float the the surface in a minute or two. Scoop out with a slotted spoon. 

11. Serve into plates. Pour a ladel of cream sauce on top. Decorate with while lobster claw. Serve and enjoy!