Serves 4
BROTH
44 cup olive oil 6 tablespoons (3A stick) butter
carrot, peeled, cleaned, and finely chopped
poblano chiles, stem and seeds removed, finely chopped
bunches cilantro, roughly chopped
cups white wine
quarts Fish Stock
The reserved lobster shells, roughly chopped 2 leeks, white part only, split, cleaned,
and finely chopped 4 ribs celery, cleaned and finely chopped FILLING
Approximately 2 cups
tablespoons (% stick) butter shallots, peeled and sliced pound spiny lobster meat, shells split and meat removed in two large sections per tail (reserve shells)
3 tablespoons Spanish sherry wine vinegar PA cups heavy cream Salt and cracked black pepper, to taste 2 egg yolks, beaten
Basic All-purpose Flour Pasta dough (page 206) 1 egg, beaten
tablespoon water slivers raw poblano chile cilantro leaves
1. Make the broth: Heat a large, heavy pan over gentle heat. Add the olive oil and butter. When the butter melts add the lobster shells and cook 2 minutes.
2. Add the leek, celery, carrots, chiles, and cilantro and cook until vegetables are glazed, about 8 minutes, stirring often. Add the wine and cook until only У2 cup remains. Add the prepared fish stock and cook over low heat about 30 minutes.
3. Strain broth through a fine-mesh strainer and/or cheesecloth. Set aside or chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Discard the vegetables.
4. Make the filling: Melt the butter over medium heat until it starts to foam. Add the shallots and stir. Do not allow to brown. Now lay the lobster sections in the pan, treating them as you would large shrimp. Turn them from time to time, for about 2 minutes. While they are still rare, add the vinegar and shake the pan to distribute it.
5. When the vinegar has reduced almost to a glaze, add the cream. Turn the lobster meat over in the cream and, with tongs, remove it to a plate. Continue to reduce the cream until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Taste and season.
6. Using either a knife or a food processor, finely chop the lobster meat. If you are using a food processor, be careful not to puree the meat. The texture should be slightly coarse. Transfer mixture to a clean bowl.
7. Strain the cream through a fine-mesh strainer into the bowl with the lobster meat. Add the egg yolks to the lobster and cream and blend well. Cover and chill until ready to fill the tortellini.
8. Prepare pasta, proceeding to the point where you have rolled out and hung the dough.
9. Remove the lobster mixture from the refrigerator. 10. Cut out circles of dough with a cookie cutter or a wine glass and stack them in short piles so they do not dry out. (Sprinkle with a little flour if they seem too wet.)
11. Spoon a small amount of the lobster mixture onto the dough just below the center of the circle. Brush the dough around the lobster filling with a mixture of 1 whole egg, beaten, and 1 tablespoon water. This helps keep the dough sealed. Fold the circle in half over the lobster mixture and seal the edges. Now put your forefinger in the middle of the flat side and squeeze the two ends of dough around it. (If the lobster mixture oozes out, you have used too much to fill the pocket of dough.) Gently pinch the ends together and fold the top curve over to form the tortellini. (Tortellini are supposedly modeled after the navel of the Venus de Milo, so now you know what to look for.) Lay the tortellini on a cookie sheet and keep covered with a dry towel until you are ready to complete the soup, but refrigerate if it will be more than 45 minutes. (Tortellini do freeze successfully, if well covered.)
12. Heat the fish broth to just below a simmer.
13. Heat a medium-sized pot full of water to boiling and cook 24 tortellini for about 2 minutes. (They should be al dente.) Remove them with a slotted spoon and put 6 tortellini in each of 4 warm bowls. Ladle the broth over the tortellini, add the garnish of slivered fresh chiles and sprigs of cilantro, and serve immediately.