Best Lobster Mac and Cheese
Lobster mac and cheese is usually reserved for a fancy night out. But this recipe makes creamy lobster mac and cheese easy to bake at home! Better yet, a big pan means lots of leftovers.
Servings: 10 medium servings
Equipment
- 9x13" pan
- Wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 1 pound elbow pasta
- 1 ⅔ cups hand-grated mozzarella cheese (not fresh mozz) packed
- 1 ⅔ cups hand-grated sharp cheddar cheese packed
- 1 ⅔ cups hand-grated Emmental or Jarlsberg cheese packed
- 1 cup hand-grated parmesan cheese packed
- 1 pound cooked lobster meat
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup half and half
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 5 tablespoons butter
- Salt and black or white pepper to taste
- Chives to garnish
Instructions
- Lightly grease a 9x13” pan. Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large pot, boil your elbows for the cook time on the box minus 1 minute for extra al-dente pasta. Drain. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and toss to coat.
- In a separate medium pan over low heat, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Let melt. Increase heat to medium, add flour and whisk until incorporated.
- Slowly add milk, and then half and half, whisking them into the flour mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Whisk for about 6-12 minutes over medium heat (depending on how cold your ingredients were when you started) until it passes the wooden spoon test. Stir constantly!
- The wooden spoon test will help check whether your roux has thickened. When the roux is steaming hot and about to simmer, you’ll feel a bit of resistance as the roux thickens. Use your finger to trace a line on the back of a wooden spoon. If there is a creamy coating on the back of the spoon and the line remains strong and visible (not faint), the roux is thick enough and it’s done! See video for visual instructions.
- When roux has thickened, turn heat off and add the mozzarella, Emmental (or Jarlsberg), and sharp cheddar (NOT the parmesan). Stir until the cheese melts.
- Pour the cheese mixture into the pasta and toss. Add about 75% of the lobster. Toss.
- Pour pasta mixture into your pan, smoothing out into an even layer.
- Bake for 25 minutes. With about 7 minutes left, sprinkle parmesan cheese and remaining lobster, and finish baking. Serve with snipped chives!
Video
Notes
- I recommend hand-grating all of your cheeses if possible. Pre-grated/shredded cheese includes an anti-caking agent which can cause the cheese to separate from the other ingredients in your mac and not melt as smoothly. It’s not a mandatory but definitely recommended.
- Look for regular mozzarella cheese, NOT fresh mozzarella.
- I use the coarse setting of a cheese grater.
- If you prefer to steam your own lobsters, add lobsters to a large pot with 2 inches of boiling water. Steam in boiling water, covered, for 20 minutes. Crack and measure out 1 pound of meat. Ask your fish monger how many lobster to buy. It depends on the season (hard/soft shell and lobster sizes available!).
- Emmental and Jarlsberg cheese are Swiss cheeses. You can use gruyere if preferred, but Emmental and Jarlsberg are certainly less expensive and still delicious!
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 602kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 150mg | Sodium: 725mg | Potassium: 427mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 963IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 702mg | Iron: 1mg