Hey you, delicious sweet lobster wrapped in my favorite thing in the world. I will get to you in just a second. I have a tiny bit of catching up to do.
I didn’t write a post since April. Also, I had a baby in April.
I had this awesome schedule all planned out, how I was going to keep the blog active and update it regularly. It lasted two weeks. And with each and every week that passed and I didn’t have time to write a post or take pictures of the meals I cooked ( hubby brought home :D) I got a little bit more sad.
I am such a genius, that besides having a baby, at the same time I also decided to do some smaller renovations around the house, and build a nice vegetable garden, and a green house.
Accomplished.
Then I decided to put the same house on a market. And get into a contract to build another. Brilliant. Oh, yes. And also I had three friends visiting from Croatia somewhere in the middle, and a friends wedding in Las Vegas.
And lots and lots of doctors.
So see, there is plenty of excuses…but they really don’t matter. I am sad I missed a whole season of beautiful products and cooking to share with you. Like there was no Summer. I am sad I let blog fall into the background again, because it makes me happy.
However, its design doesn’t make me happy and I am really stuck. It certainly didn’t make me run back to it with all the other excuses I have. I dream of a nice and simple, WHITE! blog. With everything working properly and a simple and recognizable logo. Great plan, but I suck at executing it. And my budget is just a tiny bit tight right now to hire a professional.
Oh. And the house didn’t sell yet, new one is half way done, and I am very, very close to going a teeny bit crazy. Luckily, wherever I look or turn, there are two large pieces of my heart running or giggling around me, and everything in the end is somehow ok. Amazing even.
Also, very fortunately for my blog and my tummy I like challenges, so an assignment where I need to use prosciutto, my top five ingredients ever, came in the best moment possible. I’ll worry about the design, house, finances and doctors some other time. It’s time to cook!
The prosciutto I used in this recipe is Prosciutto di San Daniele. I really like it, and while it is absolutely delicious to eat with yummy cheese and olives, it is also great to cook with, much better than what I am used to with prosciutto from Croatia, which is a bit drier than Prosciutto di San Daniele.
It was very hard to decide on what to make, because I wanted to make everything. I wanted to put it in a salad, make the worlds best sandwich in it, top a cupcake with it, or just juice it. I am really starting to research all this juicing stuff and I am quite sure I would like to drink prosciutto all day, rather than that green kale stuff. 😀
Prosciutto makes me think of home, and I miss seafood. I happened to find some nice lobster tails at the deli where I bought Prosciutto di San Daniele and my mouth drooled at the idea of combining the two. Fennel came next in mind, and that is how the meal came together. I hope if you decide to make it, you enjoy it as much as we did!
Prosciutto Wrapped Lobster Tail Over Creamy Fennel Risotto
Prosciutto Wrapped Lobster Tails
2 lobster tails (around 4 or 5 oz each), shell removed and devained
2 thin slices of Prosciutto di San Daniele (plus 2 for snacking)
Put a skewer through the lobster tails lengthwise and blanch them for about a minute. Put a few drops of olive oil on the tail and then carefully wrap a slice of Prosciutto di San Daniele around each lobster tail and secure with a toothpick before grilling.
I decided to use my grill pan for this, because it was cold outside and I didn’t want to fire up my grill for such a small meal. Any pan will do just fine as well.
Grill the tail for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side depending on the size of the tails you have.
Put it on top of the risotto and finish seasoning it with some freshly ground pepper and a drizzle of good quality olive oil.
Creamy Fennel Risotto
1 cup Arborio rice
4 to 5 cups of seafood or vegetable stock
2 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 medium shallots
one minced garlic clove
1/4 of chopped parsley
1 large fennel
1/2 cup of white vine
1/4 cup Mascarpone cheese
2 Tbsp of grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbsp of butter
salt and ground black pepper
Heat the olive oil in a big pan. In a separate pot heat up the stock.
Finely dice shallots and saute them until translucent. Clean and slice the fennel and add it to the pan. Saute until it starts getting slightly browned and then add the minced garlic and keep cooking for about 30 seconds. Add chopped parsley. Pour vine over the fennel and cook for a few minutes, until it reduces nicely.
Once vine is reduced, add the rice to the big pan and cook it for a couple of minutes, constantly stirring until it gets translucent around the edges, and then slowly start adding the stock.
Love your rice and enjoy cooking it, as ridiculous as it sounds. If you are impatient or too busy to stand over it for 20 or so minutes, opt for a pasta dish. Risotto is not hard to make, how some people like to think, but it does require your attention or you will ruin it. It does not need to be stirred without stopping for 20 minutes, at least not in the beginning, but you can’t let it go for five or even two minutes unsupervised either. Especially in the end when everything counts.
You may not use all of the stock you prepared, and sometimes I had to reach for some more in the end, you will see how much your rice needs one you start cooking it.
After about 10 to 15 minutes, when the rice is more than half way done, mix in the Mascarpone and Parmesan cheese. It will take this risotto on another level and make it beautifully creamy.
Continue mixing and cooking until the rice is al dente and then remove from the heat. Risotto should still be runnier than you want it at this point. Divide the butter in a few smaller pieces, gently mix it in the risotto and forget about it for two minutes.
Plate the risotto and put your beautiful Prosciutto wrapped lobster tail on top.
If you are not a fan of lobster, this dish would be gorgeous with large prawn tails wrapped in prosciutto. In that case you would use one slice of Prosciutto di San Daniele sliced once lengthwise and then cut in half, to wrap 4 prawn tails. Since they are smaller there is no need to blanch them first, and you can skewer four tails on one skewer stick and grill like that, about two to three minutes per side.
Buon Appetito!
looks amazing!
Thank you! 🙂