In Greece, one of the most luxurious yet comforting dishes you’ll see in good seafood tavernas is pasta with prawns or lobster—a plate that instantly feels like a celebration. It’s exactly the sort of thing I love to serve over the festive period, especially on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, when everyone is ready for something special but a little lighter than yet another roast. Paired with a simple green salad and a chilled glass of fizz, it feels both elegant and indulgent without being heavy.
Here, I use cooked lobster but build incredible depth of flavour by making a rich crustacean stock from crab and lobster shells, which then becomes the base for a gently spiced tomato sauce. The pasta cooks directly in this fragrant liquid, soaking up every drop of sweetness from the tomatoes and the sea. The lobster meat is only warmed through at the end so it stays tender and succulent. The result is a silky, deeply flavoured dish with just the right amount of heat and herbs—decadent, yes, but also beautifully balanced and absolutely worth gathering everyone around the table for.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1 cooked lobster cut in half and flesh removed
- 1 tomato on the vine cut in four
- 4 tomatoes on the vine grated
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 small chilli, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 100ml dry white wine
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 2 tbsp finely shredded basil leaves
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 400g spaghetti
- 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 kg of crab shells or mixed crustacean shells
Method
Cover your crustacean shells with water, add a bay leaf, a tomato cut in four and bring to the boil. Remove the scum from the top, lower the heat and let it simmer slowly for an hour. Drain the stock and put back in a clean pan together with the shells of the cooked lobster and repeat the stock making process. Strain and keep to the side. You should aim to have about 2 ltr of stock to cook your pasta in.
In a large pan, sweat the onion in 2 tbsp of oil. Add the garlic, chopped chilli, sugar and tomato paste. Stir for a couple more minutes and add the white wine. When that has almost evaporated, added the grated tomatoes, 1 bay leaf, 2-3 sprigs of thyme and cook down. Add the lobster stock and bring to the boil. Add a good pinch of salt and add the pasta. When the pasta is almost cooked add the lobster flesh to warm up and mix with the chopped parsley. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding some freshly ground black pepper.
When all the sauce has been absorbed, serve the pasta, topped with the lobster flesh and sprinkled with the chopped basil leaves and chilli flakes.