Find | Bottarga

What Is It?

Bottarga is the roe pouch of tuna (tonno) or gray mullet (mugine). After extraction, it’s washed, purified, salted and cured into the slab you see sold in stores.

What Does It Taste Like?

It’s savory and briny with a hint of almond.

How To Use It?

Bottarga often gets called the “poor man’s caviar,” but some people like it more than the real thing, especially shaved on pasta. You can also spread it on toast or add it to scrambled eggs.

Recipe | No Cook Pasta Dressing

This is how Gustiamo suggests using bottarga. Slice the bottarga thin, marinate in good extra virgin olive oil, the juice and zest of a lemon, chopped parsley, peperoncino and capers. Cook pasta, add to bottarga mix and serve. It’s delicious either warm or cold.

Recipe | Seafood Pasta

Chef Scott Conant uses bottarga in his recipe below for Stracci with Seafood.

Mullet Roe by Fratelli Cabras from Sardinia

“An ancient Mediterranean delicacy, Bottarga is enjoying a revival among American epicures. Gustiamo made by hand bottarga boasts all traditional methods of production, including an all natural, 30 days curing time on wood planks, a practice dismissed by most bottarga producers, which gives Gustiamo bottarga an incredible depth of flavor.”

- Gustiamo, Italian Gourmet Food Importers

Slice it thinly or shave the slab.

Use it straight from the jar to season pasta, bitter greens, mashed potatoes, rice or scrambled eggs.

Recipe

Stracci with Seafood

Recipe courtesy of chef Scott Conant

Stracci pasta (translated to rag) are cooked in clam juice and leek sauce which is made from leeks, shallots, chicken stock and extra virgin olive oil. Sliced garlic and scallion are sweated then deglazed with the shellfish stock. Leek sauce is then added. The dish is finished with a mixture of seafood, little neck clams, razor clams, mussels, rock shrimp. It is then finished with a chiffonade of parsley. Once plated, the dish is topped with a bottarga breadcrumb mixture (bottarga is dried fish roe from either tuna or mullet, we use mullet bottarga).

Yield

Serves 2

Ingredients

- 19 pieces of Stracci 

- 2 oz. shellfish liquid

- 2 oz. leek sauce

- 5 shucked clams

- 5 shucked mussels

- 1 tablespoon razor clam diamonds

- 8 marinated rock shrimp

- 2 tablespoon leeks, diced and cooked

- 1 teaspoon shaved garlic

- 1 tablespoon sliced scallions (on the bias)

- 1 tablespoon parsley (chiffonade)

- 2 tablespoon bottarga breadcrumbs

- 1 tablespoon tomato dice

Leek Sauce

- 2 quarts leeks

- 6 cloves garlic

- 1 quart zucchini bodies (no skin)

- 1.5 quart vegetable stock

- 1 - 1.5 cups extra virgin olive oil

- Thyme, to taste

- Peperoncino, to taste

- Salt, to taste

Directions

Leek Sauce

1) Sweat leeks and garlic, no color.

2) Season with salt, peperocino and thyme.

3) Add zucchini bodies, sweat.

4) Deglaze with vegetable stock, bring to boil.

5) Simmer until fully cooked, 30 minutes.

6) Strain and puree adding the liquid back in to adjust consistency.

7) Blend in extra virgin olive oil and adjust seasoning.

Seafood + Stracci

1) Heat saute pan, add 2 tablespoon olive oil.

2) Add garlic and sweat, no color, add scallions, add leeks.

3) Cook pasta in boiling, salted water.

4) As the pasta is cooking, deglaze pan with shellfish stock.

5) Add leek sauce.

6) Cook pasta 3/4 of the way in the pasta cooker, then finish in the pan with the stock and sauce.

7) Adjust consistency with pasta water.

8) Add the shellfish, finish with parsley and tomatoes.

9) Plate the pasta in the center of a large round coupe plate.

10) Sprinkle 2 tablespoon of bottarga breadcrumbs.

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