I have been meaning to put this Sicilian recipe on the blog for a long time as I adore it and love bottarga. Bottarga is a dried, salted fish roe which is a condiment that adds the unique flavour of the sea to the pasta. You can buy it in most Italian delis or online and a little goes a long way, as you only use a small amount. The breadcrumbs add a bit of texture and you can add some lemon zest too like I do. It’s perfect for dinner for two with a salad.

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1 -2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced 
• Big pinch of chilli flakes 
• 1 cup of breadcrumbs 
• 1 tbs of grated Bottarga 
• 250g of spaghetti or any long pasta
• A small bunch of parsley chopped 
• 1/2 lemon, zest only (optional)

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How:

Fill a big saucepan with slightly salted water and put in the stove to boil, bottarga is salty so don’t over salt the water. 

Then heat the olive oil in a big pan over a gentle heat. Add the garlic and chilli flakes and stir fry till the garlic is golden. Discard the garlic. Now add the breadcrumbs and fry them, stirring all the time till they are golden and crunchy. Stir in the bottarga and the lemon zest if using, remove from the heat. Set aside.

Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and save half a cup of the cooking water. Put the spaghetti in to the pan with the breadcrumbs and mix for a couple of minutes. Add the reserved pasta water if it’s dry, a tablespoon at a time so it’s a bit moist. Check the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle with the parsley and grate more bottarga on top and serve.

I shop at:
Waitrose
Sainsbury’s
Tesco
Lidl