Pasta

Pasta con la Bottarga is about as simple as pastas get, consisting of pasta (usually spaghetti), grated bottarga and olive oil. Yet for such a meager amount of effort, you’ll be treated to a decadent pasta roaring with umami and flavours of the sea. In this version, I’ve added some freshly grated wasabi to balance out the richness and give it a slight kick at the end.

Once called, the poor man’s caviar, bottarga carries a US price tag of about $90 a pound, clearly indicating that times have changed. Bottarga is the roe sac of mullet or tuna, that’s been dried and cured in sea salt. While it’s a specialty of the Sardinia region of Italy, it goes by many names in countries all along the Mediterranean. Mine came from a Spanish grocer in Manhattan and was labeled huevos de mújol or “mullet eggs”. continue →

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