Bringing lobster out of its shell
Franco Gatto, executive chef at Il Baretto, on why he will never tire of making pasta
I come from Treviso, a village just outside Venice. We didn’t have a favourite dish as a family but we ate a lot of pasta, as you would expect. We ate it at least twice a day, sometimes more. I still really enjoy cooking it and it’s still my favourite thing to eat.
I used to work for an Italian restaurant on High Street Kensington. I spent about four and a half years there before I was offered the executive job at Il Baretto. I left because it was quite a small place and I wanted to move to a bigger company.
Kennebunkport Surf & Turf Gift Certificate for Four
A great combo—1 1/2 lb live Maine lobster
& 8 oz. filet mignon and chilled extra large
jumbocooked shrimp with fresh cocktail sauce.
We have a big menu at Il Baretto, there are a lot of dishes to choose from, but we have a lot of staff so there’s always someone here in the morning to make fresh pasta. Most dishes we serve are from southern Italy and we’ve tried to keep them very simple. For me, it’s all about the freshness of the ingredients – let them do the talking.
That’s how it’s done in Italy and we try and import as many of the ingredients as we can. Obviously, we can’t import everything so we’ve had to make
some dishes more English than they would be, but it’s important that the dishes taste as authentic as possible.
We’re in the centre of Marylebone which is a nice place to be. It’s a street of restaurants, one after the other, but we’re still really busy. We have a stone oven that we bake the pizzas in near the front, so people see that, smell it, and it invites them in.
Maine Lobster linguine is one of the most popular dishes on the menu, followed by the pizza and the ravioli. I decided to use sweet chilli in this recipe to make it easier on the English palate.
I like lots and lots of chilli, but not everybody does so it was a way to sweeten everything up a bit. We make sure the lobster is as fresh as possible – our ones are wriggling around right until we cook them – and don’t overcook the pasta.
Take two minutes off the time suggested on the packet, and then let it cook in the bisque so it coats the pasta.
INGREDIENTS (serves 4)
300g linguine
2 maine lobster 500/600g each
1 onion
1 carrot
2 sticks of celery
½ glass of white wine
250ml 1tbsp tomato paste
1 chopped garlic clove
1 sweet red chilli
chopped parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Method
Cook the whole lobster for two minutes in a large saucepan of boiling water, remove it from the water, and break the claws from the body. Return the claws to the water and cook for a further two minutes. Plunge the body and claws into ice cold water after cooking. When the lobster is cold remove all the flesh and put the shell to one side for the bisque.
Gently fry the onion, carrot and celery for 10 minutes in a pot, add in the lobster shell and toast for another 10 mins. Add the white wine and, once it is evaporated, add the tomato paste and cover with one litre of ice cold water.
Leave to simmer for 45 mins. Pass the stock through a sieve and discard the shell and vegetables. Reduce the stock down until you are left with a thick lobster bisque.
Pan fry the garlic and chilli over a high heat in a saucepan and add in the chopped lobster meat, seasoning with salt and pepper. When the lobster starts to fry, add half of the bisque.
Cook the linguine in a large pot of salted boiling water until very al dente (two minutes under the cooking time shown on the packet).
Remove the chopped Maine fresh lobster from the sauce and place the linguine into the pan using tongs. Allow the pasta to finish cooking whilst absorbing the bisque. If the sauce is too thick and the pasta too al dente, then add in some of the remaining bisque.
When the pasta is ready, return the lobster to the pan, add chopped parsley, a little olive oil, and serve.
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Price: $28.00
Buy Maine lobster in its most animated form- LIVE.
We hand-select only the finest quality live hard-shell Maine lobsters.
I come from Treviso, a village just outside Venice. We didn’t have a favourite dish as a family but we ate a lot of pasta, as you would expect. We ate it at least twice a day, sometimes more. I still really enjoy cooking it and it’s still my favourite thing to eat.
I used to work for an Italian restaurant on High Street Kensington. I spent about four and a half years there before I was offered the executive job at Il Baretto. I left because it was quite a small place and I wanted to move to a bigger company.
Kennebunkport Surf & Turf Gift Certificate for Four
A great combo—1 1/2 lb live Maine lobster
& 8 oz. filet mignon and chilled extra large
jumbocooked shrimp with fresh cocktail sauce.
We have a big menu at Il Baretto, there are a lot of dishes to choose from, but we have a lot of staff so there’s always someone here in the morning to make fresh pasta. Most dishes we serve are from southern Italy and we’ve tried to keep them very simple. For me, it’s all about the freshness of the ingredients – let them do the talking.
That’s how it’s done in Italy and we try and import as many of the ingredients as we can. Obviously, we can’t import everything so we’ve had to make
some dishes more English than they would be, but it’s important that the dishes taste as authentic as possible.
We’re in the centre of Marylebone which is a nice place to be. It’s a street of restaurants, one after the other, but we’re still really busy. We have a stone oven that we bake the pizzas in near the front, so people see that, smell it, and it invites them in.
Maine Lobster linguine is one of the most popular dishes on the menu, followed by the pizza and the ravioli. I decided to use sweet chilli in this recipe to make it easier on the English palate.
I like lots and lots of chilli, but not everybody does so it was a way to sweeten everything up a bit. We make sure the lobster is as fresh as possible – our ones are wriggling around right until we cook them – and don’t overcook the pasta.
Take two minutes off the time suggested on the packet, and then let it cook in the bisque so it coats the pasta.
Lobster Dish of the day
Franco Gatto’s Lobster linguineINGREDIENTS (serves 4)
300g linguine
2 maine lobster 500/600g each
1 onion
1 carrot
2 sticks of celery
½ glass of white wine
250ml 1tbsp tomato paste
1 chopped garlic clove
1 sweet red chilli
chopped parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Method
Cook the whole lobster for two minutes in a large saucepan of boiling water, remove it from the water, and break the claws from the body. Return the claws to the water and cook for a further two minutes. Plunge the body and claws into ice cold water after cooking. When the lobster is cold remove all the flesh and put the shell to one side for the bisque.
Gently fry the onion, carrot and celery for 10 minutes in a pot, add in the lobster shell and toast for another 10 mins. Add the white wine and, once it is evaporated, add the tomato paste and cover with one litre of ice cold water.
Leave to simmer for 45 mins. Pass the stock through a sieve and discard the shell and vegetables. Reduce the stock down until you are left with a thick lobster bisque.
Pan fry the garlic and chilli over a high heat in a saucepan and add in the chopped lobster meat, seasoning with salt and pepper. When the lobster starts to fry, add half of the bisque.
Cook the linguine in a large pot of salted boiling water until very al dente (two minutes under the cooking time shown on the packet).
Remove the chopped Maine fresh lobster from the sauce and place the linguine into the pan using tongs. Allow the pasta to finish cooking whilst absorbing the bisque. If the sauce is too thick and the pasta too al dente, then add in some of the remaining bisque.
When the pasta is ready, return the lobster to the pan, add chopped parsley, a little olive oil, and serve.
Live Maine Lobster 1 1/4 Pound
Price: $28.00
Buy Maine lobster in its most animated form- LIVE.
We hand-select only the finest quality live hard-shell Maine lobsters.
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