Bottarga Di Muggine

[shroomgirl]

Um... so while in NYC shopping and eating lunch with other cheftalkers in a really cool Italian grocery I bought bottarga....dried fish roe...this is already grated.
So now the question is whatdya do with it.....besides pasta with olive oil and this over the top???
We also saw Cedro> and it was a new one for us too....

[Pete]

I would probably be good over a shellfish stew of some sort. How does it take to cooking? Maybe combine it with breadcrumbs and crust a fish with it? Other than that, not really sure. I will have to think about that one.

[marmalady]

thought I'd be helpful Hannah, and just did a Google search for bottarga recipes - got loads, but they're all in Italian!!!

I seem to remember Mario Batali doing something with bottarga - maybe it's in one of his books.

Pongi - where are you?!!!

[Pongi]

Bottarga is just something typical of my area, Liguria, and of Sardinia as well...
The first recipe coming to my mind is, as shroomgirl said,

SPAGHETTI CON BOTTARGA

Ingredients, serve 6
-20 oz spaghetti
-1 garlic clove
-1 chili pepper
-4 oz grated bottarga
-olive oil

1)Gently fry with oil in a large pan the garlic and pepper.

2)Half cook in salted water the spaghetti. Keep the spaghetti water.

3)Put the spaghetti in the pan and sauté them with garlic and pepper until cooked.

4)Add the bottarga, stir well, add some spaghetti water, mix again and serve immediately.

If you like, in the step 1 you can also add clams or mussels or other shellfish


Bottarga is also delicious with salads, and the most typical Ligurian salad, the "CONDIGGION", just calls for it.
I must go now, but come back soon with this and other recipes!

Pongi

[Pongi]

Speaking of Spaghetti with Bottarga, I can also remember a recipe where someone suggested to add some tea (yes, TEA) to the spaghetti. He maintained that the tea softened the saltiness of the Bottarga, adding additional flavour. Can't remember the doses and the procedure of that recipe and have never tried it, so can't say if it's a brilliant idea or a nonsense...

BTW: never cook the Bottarga! It must be eaten exclusively raw, adding it to the other ingredients only at the end

Let's go on with the recipes!


CONDIGGION

Ingredients:
-Ship's biscuits (if you haven't got them, use Wasa crackers of something like that)
-Tomatoes
-Yellow peppers
-Cucumbers
-Young onions (don't know if it's correct for "cipollotti freschi")
-Baby artichokes
-Black olives
-Garlic cloves
-Fresh basil leaves
-Bottarga, cut in thin slices
-olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper

1)Rub the crackers with a garlic clove, wet them with water and vinegar and layer them on a serving dish.

2)Cut all the vegetables in slices and put them in separate layers on the bread, seasoning each layer with oil, salt, pepper and a few vinegar.

3)Top with the slices of Bottarga and garnish with basil leaves and black olives.



SALSA PICCANTE DI BOTTARGA E MELANZANE

Ingredients, serve 6
-2-3 oz grated Bottarga
-1 Eggplant
-1 carrot
-1 celery stalk
-1 onion
-1 glass red wine
-1 chili pepper
-olive oil
-salt

1)Finely chop the vegetables and fry them in oil with the chili pepper, very gently, until soft. Remove from the heat and cool down.

2)Work the Bottarga into a cup with some oil. Add it to the vegs and mix well until smooth.

3)Add gradually the wine and some more oil. Season with salt.

4)Serve this sauce with bread croutons or use it as a Pasta sauce.

5)You can also substitute the eggplant with 2 fresh peppers.

Hope this helps!

Pongi

[shroomgirl]

Thank you so much!!! And yes I just happen to have cippolini from NYC Farmer's market.....

[elakin]

hi shroom.

i love bottarga....i worked with it at da francesco. we pretty much treated it like parmesan cheese...just shaved it or grated it over everything.

we did a bruschetta with marinated anchovies and bottarga, fresh arugula, cherry tomatoes.

[alexia]

It is kind of Pongi to have posted the battarga recipes.

I have a couple questions about bopttarga. First, is the vacu-sealed bottarga the same quality? Second how do you store it?

[cape chef]

Hey Shroomgirl,

Um, I don't recall you sharing your Bottarga with all of us at Chelsy market! What gives??

Alexia, I agree with you..Pongi's recipes soung great.

You know whats cool about battarga? When you grate it on pasta with olive oil, it almost looks like curry.

Some fun history about Bottarga.

Bottarga, derives from the Aribic

batarikh which in turn derives from the Coptic pitaoichon or the Greek tarichoe, meaning salted fish or meat.

It's a very old art, and in Sardinia one of there favorite ways to prepare Bottarga is with spaghetti.

In Sardinia, Bottarga is made with either di tonna (Tuna) or di muggine (gray Mullet)
cc

[mudbug]

marmalady,

You can translate any web page which is in Italian into English for free at many sites. Try here for starters.

[marmalady]

CChiu, Thanks for the tip!

[Pongi]

As you said, Bottarga is made with Tuna or Mullet eggs.
The egg bags are carefully removed, without breaking them, from the fish tummy. They're sprinkled with salt, pressed between two small wood boards, and hung on in the open air in a fresh, windy place. Everyday the procedure is repeated, changing the boards and pressing more the "Baffe" of Bottarga. In a couple of weeks the procedure is ended, the Bottarga is completely dried and the "Baffe" can be stored to complete the maturation.
Everyday, most Bottarga is sold vacu-sealed and the quality can be good the same.
Like any other dried and salted food, it's supposed to be stored in the open air, in any fresh and dry place. When already cut, yet, it could be better to put it in the refrigerator, sealed with a plastic film, to keep it for a longer time.

Pongi

[monkeymay]

Pongi your recipes sound fantastic!

When I was in Sicily we ate a lot of bottarga- mostly with pasta / parsley and olive oil sauce. The oil and the parsley were so green contrasting with the orange /brown shavings of the tuna - it was amazing. I also ate it as a topping on a thin crust pizza with tomato sauce made from 'strattu (serious Sicilian tomato paste) and garnished with black olives and torn basil leaves. Yum!
Your recipes have made me hungry - I need to go back to Palermo soon!

Peace.