I was reading on Serious Eats about pasta with bottarga. I had a jar of bottarga in the pantry that I was aching to try. The article said it would give the taste of the sea to the pasta. I looked at the recipe, and decided to take a slightly different tactic but incorporate some of the techniques for dealing with the bottarga in my dish.
For those that don't know what bottarga is, it is the salted and dried roe sacs from mullet fish. You can buy it in whole lobes, or pre-ground up. I had a jar of pre-ground, so that is what I used.
For my version, I used short pasta, lots of parsley, a sliced red finger pepper, and A LOT of garlic, sliced into not so thin slices.
Ingredients
2 oz grated bottarga, divided
5 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced, not too thinly
1 small bunch curly parsley, chopped
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
10 flowering chives, chopped
1 red finger pepper, sliced
1/2 c good, flavorful olive oil
1 lb short pasta
Method
1. In a pan large enough to hold all the cooked pasta, heat the oil and add in the garlic slices. Allow the slices to slowly brown and soften in the oil, stirring frequently. You do not want a dark brown, but a golden brown all over the slices.
2. Add in all but 1 T of the bottarga and turn off the heat under the pan. Allow the bottarga to steep in the warm oil along with the garlic for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, bring a pot of water to a boil, add 1-2 T salt, and cook the pasta 2 minutes short of doneness according to the package directions.
3. Add the chopped parsleys, finger pepper to the steeping bottarga and stir to combine. If the pasta is getting close to done, add about 1/2 c of the pasta water to the bottarga pan. Stir to emulsify and combine well. Turn on the flame under the bottarga pan.
4. When the pasta has reached its 2 minutes short of doneness add to the bottarga along with another 1/2 c of pasta water. Stir to combine and cook until the pasta has absorbed the liquid in the pan. If necessary add more pasta water to create the texture you like. Sprinkle on the remaining 1 T of bottarga.
5. Serve.
This was sooooooo good. I am now searching the web for more bottarga! It really had the flavor of the sea, it was not super salty, not fishy, it was just like the sea. I know that is a very unsatisfying description, but that is what it added to the pasta, the essence of the sea. Neither of us could stop eating it, even after we had salad, we were still eyeing the pasta remaining in the pan and contemplating another bowl or few bites! I actually got up around 2 am and had a bowl cold, it was still delicious!
