Bobby Flay Says This Dish Is a Best Seller at His Restaurant

• Bobby Flay shared his recipe for his best-selling lobster cavatelli, served at his Las Vegas restaurant.
• The dish features homemade ricotta cavatelli, spicy tomato sauce and anchovy butter.
• Store-bought pasta and pre-cooked lobster make it easy to recreate at home.

Bobby Flay may be best known for his fiery on-screen personality and mastery of the grill, but at his Las Vegas restaurant Amalfi, it’s a pasta dish that steals the spotlight. In a recent Instagram video, Flay walked fans through how to make lobster cavatelli, which he says is the restaurant’s top-selling pasta “every single night.”

The dish combines homemade pasta, a spicy Calabrian chili tomato sauce, and a rich, briny finishing touch that Flay calls his “magic potion.” But don’t be intimidated by the fine-dining pedigree—Flay keeps things simple, sharing tips that make this an accessible project for any ambitious home cook.

He starts by mixing a soft dough from flour, ricotta and eggs, describing it as “kind of like a dumpling dough, like a gnocchi dough.” After letting it rest, he slices the dough into quarters, rolls each one into thin ropes, then cuts them into bite-size pieces. Each piece gets a quick roll across a textured board to form classic cavatelli ridges. “Just do it a few times,” he encourages. “You’ll get it, promise.”

While the pasta rests, he turns to the sauce: a deeply flavorful mix of sautéed onions and crushed garlic simmered with Calabrian chilies and San Marzano tomatoes. With just a handful of ingredients, it delivers bold heat and depth, thanks to the quality of the tomatoes and the kick from the chilies. After a bit of simmering, Flay reveals his secret: anchovy butter.

“This is the magic potion,” he says, holding up a small dish of the mixture. It’s just butter, anchovies, salt and pepper, but stirred into the sauce at the end, it transforms everything, adding rich, savory depth without overwhelming the other flavors. Even if you’re anchovy-averse, this is worth trying. The flavor mellows and melds beautifully into the sauce.

For a finishing touch, Flay fries thin slices of garlic in oil until golden and crisp. These crunchy bits bring texture and roasted flavor to the final plate. The lobster—sweet, tender and “perfectly cooked,” as Flay insists—is added last, just before tossing the pasta and sauce together.

He boils the cavatelli in well-salted water for a few minutes, just until they float and turn tender. Then everything comes together in the pan: the spicy tomato sauce, the chewy pasta, the buttery lobster and a final spoonful of that anchovy butter. A sprinkle of fresh herbs like parsley or basil is all you need to finish it off.

If you’re not up for making pasta from scratch, no problem. Flay’s method works just as well with store-bought cavatelli, which many Italian markets stock fresh or frozen. You can also pick up pre-cooked lobster meat at seafood counters or gourmet grocers—just be sure not to overcook it when warming it up.

And that anchovy butter? You’ll want to keep it on hand. Try it melted over roasted vegetables, stirred into sautéed greens, or slathered on toast under a poached egg. Like Flay says, it’s a magic potion—and it has a lot more than one trick up its sleeve.

This bold, briny pasta brings the flavor of Amalfi right to your kitchen, no Vegas reservation required.