I recently hosted a dinner party, and one especially food obsessed friend was gracious enough to source some bottarga for us to sample. Getting the product was near impossible, but eventually the right strings were pulled and a local Italian-centric eatery was happy to help us out, I’m not certain they want to be in the bottarga retailing business however. They’re probably more than happy to do up a plate of spaghetti with some grated over top however.
The egg sacks come dipped in wax which you peel away before grating or shaving the product, we found a truffle grater made an excellent bottarga shaver.
Oil was warmed, some garlic sauteed, the the spaghetti tossed in the oil, plated and shaved bottarga was added. Not much, it’s very pungent, slightly bitter and adds incredible depth of flavour and umami to the dish. It almost plays the same role as Parmesan does with noodles, ties all the flavours together and makes them richer.
It’s got a delightful sticky texture that makes it seem more substantial than it really is.
Apparently The Sooke Harbour House does a local version with flounder roe, which I’d love to try. Also, the Japanese have a similar salting/drying preparation called Karasumi. I would love to try it in egg white and conpoy fried rice, substituting it for the conpoy, it would be amazing.
~KT
