Lobster Mornay Sauce over Lemon Pepper Pappardelle

I picked up a packet of lemon pepper pappardelle pasta a couple weeks ago at Trader Joe’s, and have been looking for something to make with it. Lemon and pepper automatically suggest seafood or chicken, but I didn’t strike upon the exact one until I ended up with a bag of langostino tails this past weekend. At which point my shellfish obsession kicked in and I had to have a buttery lobster sauce to go with the lemony noodles. Hello, mornay.

Adapted from the highly rated Allrecipes Lobster Mornay Sauce, with piccies because cream sauces can be tricksy like that.

The lineup. We got a wedge of gruyère, a can of evaporated milk, some canned crab meat, some chicken broth, some all-purpose flour, and some ground black pepper. Exact amounts to follow.

Melt 1/4 cup of butter in a mediumish saucepan over mediumish heat. The original recipe also featured mushrooms, which the boy and I absolutely hate, so needless to say, we went without them. Instead, I put in some crab later on to up the seafood portions. Toss 1 pound of diced lobster meat into the butter… or, in my case, 12 ounces of langostino tails… and cook until the meat is opaque.

Remove meat from the pan and set it aside in a bowl to be added back later.

Reducing the heat to low, sprinkle 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour into the melted lobster-flavored butter. Cook and stir for a couple of minutes, making sure to get the lumps out. It helps if you sift the flour and mix with a whisk at this point.

Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth. Note how the base looks in the pan before each addition.

Stir in 1 cup of heavy cream. In my case, I used evaporated milk because that’s what I had on hand. It’s creamy enough to be an indistinguishable substitute. Of course, the use of this much dairy also meant that we had to take lactose enzyme tablets before dinner, but it was worth it in this case.

Then add in 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper. Simmer this mixture for 5 to 10 minutes until it starts to thicken, stirring occasionally and continuing to work out any remaining lumpy bits. Taste it a bit and add salt and/or pepper to your taste. We like ours not overly salty, so a light sprinkle was enough for us. Some reviewers add a lot more, and some even add additional spices at this point to give it a kick. There’s some wiggle room here.

Turn up the heat a smidge, then add in 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan or a similar hard white cheese. We happened to have a wedge of gruyère in the fridge, so I took several thin slices off the top of that. I tossed the langostinos and 1 can of crab meat in at this point as well.

Stir all of this together and cook for another 5 minutes, working on getting it to a velvety, creamy texture. The cream and butter should be melding together pretty well by this time so that there’s no longer that weird sheet of butter on the top. That’s a typical cream sauce thing that just works out the longer you mix it together.

The final product, ready to serve on top of your choice of pasta or rice. Cooked on lowish medium heat with plenty of gentle stirring, it starts to look very nice. Fast (a little less than half an hour), simple, and tastes so much more expensive than it is. Full of seafoody goodness and probably more calories than I should admit. I’ve heard of people substituting fat-free cream and butter-flavored margarine without any ill effect as well, so I’m sure there are ways to cut fat if you’re looking for them. This made about four large servings worth of sauce — I actually ended up sticking half of it in a jar and refrigerating it for putting on lunches later this week.