Garlic

Spaghetti with bottarga and stracciatella. Or in Italian, they will call it spaghettoni alla bottarga con crema di stracciatella.  As if adding bottarga to your spaghetti is not luxurious enough. I’ve decided to up it a notch and top it off with a creamy dollop of stracciatella.

So what is stracciatella? Well, my guess is that you are all familiar with burrata. The only difference between stracciatella and burrata is the thin layer of mozzarella; which, to me, doesn’t add that much value anyways. You just want that oozy, creamy goodness inside. Burrata, in fact, came after the invention of stracciatella, as a way to “hold it all together”.

Simply put, stracciatella di bufala is made with the leftover mozzarella curds and  mixing it with salt and fresh cream, thereby creating a sweet and milky delicacy. Its extremely versatile as a cheese, you can slather it on top of pizza or incorporate it into salads. Often it is served at breakfast time in Puglia, alongside toast, proscuitto, and fresh fruit. For more details as to how stracciatella is made, read this article.

The combination of  stracciatella (or burrata) on top of a dish of perfectly cooked al dente pasta is seriously delicious.

Now onto bottarga. Made from cured grey or red mullet egg roe, bottarga is a delicacy not to be missed. Bottarga is not just a delicacy in Italy, but also in Japan (known as karasumi) and in the Arabic speaking countries (known as butarkah). In Italy, mullet bottarga, or bottarga di muggine, is a specialty of Sardinia, where the rose sacs were traditionally sun-dried after salting. The texture is akin to cured egg yolks or a firm pecorino cheese, therefore making it perfect for grating.

One of my favourite ways to use bottarga is to make pasta con la bottarga. Start with gently toasting whole, crushed garlic cloves in olive oil in a pan set on low heat. This will impart a subtle allium aroma without distracting from the main flavour of the dish: the briny, salty bottarga. Meanwhile, grate your bottarga as the pasta boils. You want to steep this bottarga off-heat in the warm olive oil to coax out the delicate aroma. Last, save a cup of starchy pasta water from the pasta pot as this is ideal for emulsifying the sauce, which is brought together by simply tossing and stirring the noodles off-heat (i.e. no need to finish the pasta dish on heat, a process called mantecatura).

Fresh lemon juice and zest, plus some freshly chopped parsley helps impart some acidity and freshness to the dish. Plate up the pasta (twirl it around a tong inside a ladle if you fancy more of a refined look) and shower it with a fresh dusting of bottarga to accentuate the salty, briny flavour in the first few bites.

Spaghetti with Bottarga and Stracciatella

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Prep Time: 10M Cooking Time: 20M 20M

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 2.6/5

( 10 voted )

Ingredients

• 40 grams of bottarga
• 60ml of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• 170g of pasta such as spaghetti or linguine
• few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and zest of half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon of toasted bread crumbs
• salt

Instructions

1. Grate the bottarga with a rasp grater (microplane works) and set aside on a plate.
2. Heat pot of water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook al dente (take off 2 minutes before time instructed on the package). Reserve a cup of pasta water.
3. In the meantime, heat a skillet on medium low heat and add the olive oil and crushed garlic. Wait till the garlic turns light brown and discard.
4. Add the red chilli flakes and cook on low heat for 30 seconds.
5. Take off heat and add the grated bottarga.
6. Add the pasta to the skillet with some pasta water and toss till it emulsifies and coats the pasta all over. Add some parsley, lemon juice plus zest, and salt and continue to add the pasta water in 60ml increments till you get the right consistency.
7. Transfer to serving bowls and dust with fresh parsley, toasted breadcrumbs and a grating of more bottarga. Final touch is to add roughly 30 grams of stracciatella on top of each pasta bowl/dish. Drizzle with a teaspoon of EVOO if desired and serve immediately.

Notes

Grey mullet bottarga, or "bottarga di muggine" in Italian, is sold at some Italian specialty shops and online. It is sold as whole roe sac lobes, or already grated. As with hard cheeses, for optimal flavor we recommend buying whole pieces and grating it yourself. Bottaga, when wrapped tightly, can be stored for several months in the fridge.