Catalana lobster: Lobster with a vegetable sauce

Serves 4

 

The south of Italy is known for many incredible food specialities - especially Bari with their incredible extra virgin olive oils, breads, meats, cheeses and pasta. A region of Italy that will have your taste buds dancing as they go on an adventure of a lifetime! The miles and miles of incredible coastline ensures the seafood from Bari is INCREDIBLE and eating it raw is an absolute MUST. It is not just the variety of fish and seafood that is caught daily, seven days a week, but the quality, all year round – rain or shine the quality is off the scale (excuse the pun!). All along the coastline, you will find fish restaurants with fishmongers and fishermen selling their daily catch. The nets, boats and large blue plastic buckets present the abundance given up by the sea.

Aragosta alla Catalana is an Italian dish originating from Sardinia but of course, all regions have their variations and Bari is no exception. It is a decadent dish but one that is easy to prepare and is a real celebratory dish.

 

This is Auntie Lucia’s recipe and we made it for her birthday celebration – with the biggest lobster we could find!

 

 

Two raw or pre-cooked 600-700g lobsters

6-10 vine tomatoes, cut into halves

1 large or 2 small red onions, cut into small chunks

3 sticks of celery cut into small chunks

3 carrots, cleaned and cut into small chunks

(cut all vegetables into the same size chunks – nice and small is best)

Lemon juice

Terre Di San Vito Extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper

 

 

Cook the lobster in salted boiling water for about 30 minutes, then drain and leave to cool.

Cut the lobsters in half (lengthways from head to tail).

Remove the

Remove the tail meat and chop it into small chunks (slightly larger than the vegetables).

Keep the shell to serve the lobster.

Remove the black spine – it’s the poop!

Extract the meat from the claws and add it to the rest of the cut lobster pieces.

 Place the lobster meat in a dish with the chopped tomatoes, onion, carrot and celery.

 Remove the creamy part from the lobster head, if there are any green parts – do not throw this – add it to the mixture, it is extremely tasty (but if unsure – do not use it) and if there is any coral – keep this too. Spoon the red and green material into a sieve set over a second mixing bowl, then scrape this through the sieve into the bowl for the dressing.

 In a bowl with the creamy lobster head meat, add a pinch of salt, pepper, lemon and olive oil.

Mix until smooth and well-blended.

Now combine the cut lobster, vegetables and dressing and mix well.

Place the lobster and vegetable mixture into the lobster shell and serve on large platters. This dish would go well with any white wine but the perfect pairing would really be a very chilled bottle of Terre Di San Vito’s Terre Brut Sparkling white wine.

An incredible summer dish for two or more people