What do you do when you are on a special diet and go to someone’s house?
I am very fortunate to have such wonderful understanding friends that know that I follow a specific eating plan. That being said, there is part of me that is still somewhat old fashioned in that I was raised to believe that if someone is going to the trouble to cook for you, you should eat what they serve, even if it is something you don’t care for or don’t typically eat. For many years, when we went to my husband’s cousins’ house, they would always serve lamb. Needless to say, that is one of my least favorite foods on the planet, but I still ate it. Now that we are friends and not just cousins-in-law, we can laugh about it and I haven’t been served lamb at their house in ages.
Is it ok to ask your hosts to alter their menu for you if your diet is one of choice, even if you make that choice for long-term health reasons? This post/question is not about people with immediate reactions or life-threatening issues, it is about those of us that make food choices.
In the case that you stay true to your food decisions, do you bring food to someone’s house? Do you let them know ahead of time so they can make alternative items for you? Do you go and eat only what is within your diet, but take everything that is offered? Or, do you eat what your host has prepared for you as is?
I think I do a little bit of all of these things, depending on whose house it is and the situation. I am not writing this or asking these questions so people can judge, become defensive, or even give a definitive answer that works for everyone. I’m interested in how this is evolving in our culture and how people handle this situation.
There is a difference in the way I feel when I go to someone’s house and when people come to our house. We often ask people ahead of time if they have any food allergies, dislikes, or issues and try to cook accordingly. This is definitely true for our Christmas Eve Feast. My husband ends up making 3 different types of ravioli…lobster, gluten free lobster, and cheese. And, he even serves diners a plain lobster tail if they don’t eat any wheat or wheat substitute. Our goal as hosts is to make people feel comfortable and welcome in our home without worrying about anything.
David’s Lobster Ravioli Recipe for multiple food preferences
This sounds complicated to do multiple types of the dish for different people, but it’s not actually that hard if you think about it ahead of time. It is made much easier if you have a lot of burners on your stove (we have 6).
For 6 as a starter course (multiply by 2-3 for a main dish):
6 cooked lobster tails
1 large sheet of fresh pasta (whole foods often has this)
Block of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Italian parsley for garnish.
For Sauce (adapted from Marcella Hazan):
½ cup butter
¼ cup each of onion, carrot, celery, finely chopped
1 large can of good imported Italian plum tomatoes
Salt
Heavy whipping cream to taste (roughly 1/3 cup or so)
Alternative Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil (for the non-dairy people)
Soft cheese like ricotta, or homemade (for the non-lobster people)
Gluten-Free pasta sheets (very hard to find) or gluten-free lasagna noodles
Start by making the sauce. If there are no allergies or preferences against dairy, you can make one version. If not, it’s easy to make another on the side in a smaller pot. We tend to have larger groups around for this dish, so we are often multiplying all amounts by 4!
Drain the liquid from the can of tomatoes, add all ingredients to a pot, and set to simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you have one or two people who need non-dairy, take a third of the ingredients (substitute 2 TBS of extra virgin olive for the butter) and place in a different small pot to simmer.
After 45 minutes or so, take the sauce(s) off the heat. Pour into a food processor and pulse to desired consistency (I like it to keep some texture, so I puree it but don’t liquefy it fully). If you’re making two sauces, do the non-dairy one first so you don’t need to clean between versions.
Leave the sauces to cool in bowls.
Making the Filling:
Devein the lobster tails and put aside the strip of lobster meat you pull off to get to the vein. Cut each lobster tail in half length-wise and put aside half of the resulting halves for later.
Take the strips of lobster meat and the other half of the tail-halves and chop roughly. Add to a mixing bowl. Add some of the sauce to the bowl – enough to bind the meat together, but not enough to make the mixture liquidy.
Set aside a portion of the mixture for the non-dairy folks and add grated Parmagiano Reggiano cheese to the mixture to taste and mix together.
Assembling the Ravioli:
Lay out a pasta sheet on a big cutting board. Cut into strips about 3+ inches wide and 6 inches long. Place a spoonful of the filling a quarter of the way from the bottom of the strip. Use your finger to wet all of the edges around the perimeter of the strip with water. Then fold the strip down over the filling. Use a fork to “crimp” all four sides of the ravioli to seal it.
Repeat this for all of the ravioli to make enough so each person gets one (they end up pretty large). Do the same with the soft cheese for the non-lobster people. You should make a few extra to be safe, because some might come apart in the cooking process.
If you are using gluten-free lasagna, cook the pasta in its own pot of water and assemble with the other ingredients at the end.
Cooking and assembling:
Put the sauce(s) back on the stove on low to warm up.
Put the reserved lobster tails in a pan with a bit of melted butter to warm through (setting aside those for dairy-free people).
Chop some parsley and grate some Parmagiano Reggiano for garnish.
Put enough pans of water for each type of ravioli on to boil – regular, lobster-free, dairy-free (you don’t want to contaminate the water with allergens). We find using lower water levels makes it easier to handle to ravioli without breaking them.
Cook the gluten-free lasagna at the same time.
Cook the ravioli until done to your liking. Carefully remove the ravioli from the water with a slotted spoon to drain off water and place on a platter.
Add the heavy cream to the main sauce slowly while stirring. Once fully combined. Turn the heat off and begin to assemble the dish for serving.
It is easiest to plate the special ravioli individually.
Assemble based on the requirements of the special order.
The regular dish can be plated with each ravioli being covered in a measure of sauce, the half lobster tail, and then a sprinkling of parsley and cheese.
The lobster-free is simply the cheese ravioli with sauce, parsley, and cheese.
The dairy-free is the dairy-free lobster ravioli with dairy free sauce, lobster tail half, and parsley.
The gluten free is a piece of the cooked gluten-free lasagna folded over with the lobster mixture inside, sauce, lobster tail half, parsley and cheese. This can also be made dairy free using the dairy free lobster mixture and the dairy free sauce.
This sounds a lot harder than it is. As long as you make the correct building blocks, you can assemble the finished product for any need.
It’s one of our favorite dishes. Enjoy.