It’s hard to believe it’s been two weeks since my last post. During that time, I took part in a weekend that included roasting a whole pig at a ranch in Sonoma were there was no cell reception or Internet access (gasp!). I cooked and photographed food for two cookbooks. And I’ve been floating between New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Despite a somewhat chaotic schedule, I managed to find some time to literally toss together this delicious karasumi pasta.
Karasumi is the Japanese equivalent of Bottarga. It’s made by curing the roe sac of mullet in salt over the span of a couple weeks. This dries out the roe, intensifying it’s flavors while preserving it. Back in the day, it was even thought of as poor man’s caviar. Once cured, it’s briny, and full of umami with a waxy texture that clings to your teeth.
Karasumi makes for a terrific canape and is consumed around the world with various accompaniments such as olive oil, garlic, and lemon. My favorite way of having it is sandwiched between two thin slices of daikon radish. The crisp peppery radish makes for the perfect foil to wrap up the salty amber slivers of shaved karasumi. It’s a combo that goes great with a glass of your favorite alcoholic beverage, but I wanted to turn these flavors into more than just a tapa.
Drawing some inspiration from the Sardinian classic, Spaghetti alla Bottarga, I decided to turn my karasumi daikon canape into a pasta. Rather than slicing the daikon, I grated it, which helps it incorporate into the pasta better. Since the daikon was relatively young and came with a beautiful green tuft of greens on top, sauteed them in olive oil and tossed them along with the pasta and karasumi.
It’s a rich decadent pasta that’s balanced out with a peppery sweetness coming from the grated daikon and a just a hint of bitterness from the daikon greens. If you can’t find young daikon with greens still attached, watercress would make a great substitute.
Ingredients
- 220 grams spaghetti
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- daikon leaves (chopped)
- 1/3 cup daikon radish (grated and strained)
- 1 sac karasumi (grated on a microplane)
Steps
- Boil the pasta in well salted water for slightly less than the package recommends (my pasta said 11 minutes, I cooked it for 10).
After draining the pasta, put the hot pot back on the stove and add the olive oil.
Add the grated daikon and leaves and sauté.
Add the pasta and toss to coat evenly while adding the bottarga a little bit at a time. Plate and serve with some additional grated bottarga on top of the pasta.
Interesting ingredients for a pasta dish! I don’t know if I’ve had karasumi before – but it sounds good!
Is karasumi like mentaiko（明太子）? I have had a great pasta with that as an ingredient in Japan as well. Thanks for the recipe!
What a lovely Springtime pasta dish! I adore bottarga – when I can get my hands on some. I recently heard that a local guy around here has started making his own, and I definitely want in on that!
Mentaiko makes a great pasta too, but this is something different.
It’s just like the Italian Bottarga. It’s very hard and has a waxy
cheese-like texture, which makes it perfect for grating, is much less
fishy than mentaiko, and has more flavor. I should have thought of
this when writing the post, but it really is a lot like cheese.
This looks delicious! Does anyone know of a good Japanese Italian restaurant in New York City?
Basta Pasta used to be my favorite but is was terrible the last time I
went so they may have gone down hill… The other option is Greenwich
Grill in Tribeca which I’ve never liked.
Very nice and easy-to-follow Japanese-Italian combination recipe! Will be a good option for Asian and Western food lovers who want to do home cooking like me. I shall share the recipe with my partner. Can you suggest to replace Karasumi with anything else that taste similarly?
Fay Irvanto
http://www.quickjapaneserecipes.com
Spaghetti all Bottarga is one of my favorite dishes. I have some bottarga sitting in the fridge waiting to be used but it was a bit hard to find. I wonder if I’ll be able to find karasumi easily here in the SF Bay Area. I would love to pick some up to give it a try. Thanks for the introduction to karasumi, Marc!
This looks fresh and inventive. Reading through your comments, I saw that Basta Pasta was mentioned. I’ve been wanting to try it out for awhile now. I hope your last visit was an exception to their norm!
Oh my goodness. Salty fish roe and peppery radish, all smoothed and balanced out by pasta. Can’t wait to try this.
You can replace the karasumi with Italian Bottarga which is
essentially the same thing.
I’ve only had Bottarga a few times, but it’s very similiar to
Karasumi, so you should be able to use the two interchangeably.
Thats something you just dont see everyday, looks great!
Oh, I love bitter greens with fatty/salty flavors. It’s really the best balance, and doing it with pasta is inspired.
And you say you don’t trust fusion.
I always learn about ingredients and creative ways to use them with you; this one I have never tried but now am eager to!
What an interesting pasta dish and creative! 🙂 I’m excited to hear about this cookbook but I’m sure it was nice as a breather to be away from technology for a while. x
Mhm, looks gorgeous! And you have been a busy bee, Marc. Very excited to see the fruits of your labours, soon =)
Jax x
It sure looks delicious! I also love the healthy ingredients. Very tasty recipe. Thanks!
Amazing! My grandma is always giving me karasumi and I usually just eat it toasted, thinly sliced with some green onions, I never knew you could make stuff with it! I will try this immediately!
Is this an actual traditional Asian food??
It depends on what you consider traditional. Karasumi and daikon are a pairing that have been around for a long time in Japan. Italian pasta is a relatively recent (last 50 years) thing here, but combining roe with pasta (such as mentai spaghetti) is pretty old.
Difficult ingredient to come by.
I’m guessing by your name that you live in Florida. There’s a guy somewhere in Florida that makes Karasumi and sells it under the Italian name Bottarga. You can also try looking in an Italian specialty foods store.