Bottarga, tiny preserved fish eggs, combines with spaghetti, garlic and olive oil to create a creamy pasta dish without any cheese. Our Spaghetti alla Bottarga recipe is so easy to make that you'll want to prepare it again and again.
Peel the outer skin from the Bottarga. There may be a middle vein on the sac that you'll need to remove. It should peel easily.
Bring about 1 1/4 quarts of water seasoned with 12 grams of salt to a boil.
Drop the spaghetti into the boiling water, making sure to submerge all of the pasta. Use the box instructions to set the cooking time. Stir the spaghetti frequently
Once the spaghetti has started cooking, turn a small fire under a 10"/26cm non stick frying pan.
With about 4 minutes left in the pasta cooking time, pour the olive oil into the frying pan.
After the oil has heated, (It should be loose and shimmering. You don't want it smoking.), pour the minced garlic and the chili flake into the pan. The garlic should make a light sizzle when it enters the oil.
Cook the garlic and chili until just fragrant and pale golden. The garlic should be softened, not toasted. Remove the pan from the heat. Do not turn off the fire.
While the garlic cooks and about a minute before the pasta has finished cooking, ladle about 3/4 cups of the pasta water into a measuring cup.
Drain the pasta into a colander. Once the pasta is drained, move it immediately to the frying pan and add 2/3 of the minced parsley. Place the pan back on the heat.
Gradually mix the garlic, chili, parsley and about 1/4 of the pasta water with the pasta.
When all of the water has evaporated from the bottom of the pan, remove the pan from the heat and grate all of the Bottarga on top of the pasta.
Place the pan back on the heat and stir in the bottarga, gradually incorporating the rest of the pasta water until the pasta turns thick and creamy. (You may not need to use all of the pasta water.)
Serve in deep bowls. Garnish the pasta by sprinkling the remainder of the parsley on top.
Pro Tips
This recipe can be doubled to serve four people.
Other shapes of pasta will work but spaghetti is traditional.
You may want to heat the pasta water in an electric kettle for speed.
You can vary the amount of chili based on your taste or tolerance.
You can use minced dry chili or fresh red hot chili pepper instead of Italian chili flake.