More bottarga coming this summer!!! I mean to my home.

Somehow, a few years back, at the end of July, I found myself in the seaside town of Caligari on the Italian island of Sardinia in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. I had come to join the tail end of my friend Irene’s birthday tour. It was a short detour from my main trip to Berlin but hey, how often does one get the chance to go to Sardinia? Really, my first thought upon arrival was, “Oh, I’m in Sardinia!”, but immediately after that, my second thought was, “I HAVE to buy some bottarga!” When I finally met Irene, who arrived 18 hours late, (that’s another story) I was already salivating, my head spinning with images of spaghetti with the great, coveted bottarga, Sardinia’s legendary delicacy. Before I get caught up in our swirling adventure, I should fill a few, possible gaps, like What IS bottarga? for starters.  For those of you who do not know what it is; bottarga is dried mullet roe (still in egg sacks) salted, flattened between planks of wood and dried in the glorious Mediterranean sun. These amber colored delicacies are produced mostly in Sardinia and some parts of Sicily. Bottarga has been around for quite a while, the Sardinians used to trade bottarga with the Phoenicians and the Phoenicians died out before 300BC, so yes, there's plenty of history here.  Today, most people are familiar with bottarga di muggine which is dried grey mullet roe. Besides mullet, there are bottarga of tuna (tonno) and swordfish (spada). More of a good thing.

After a very brief, “ciao”, a kiss and a “What the hell happened to you?”,  off we went to find the famous San Bendetto market. It is supposed to be the largest covered market in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. Frankly, we were underwhelmed.  I seriously thought we were in the wrong place. There is a possibility that we arrived late and the fish mongers went home. Despite our initial disappointment, we saw some very interesting fish for sale like the moray eel, which I associate with nasty jaws coming out of crevices. Apparently it IS edible and can be found on menus in Portugal, Spain and parts of Italy. Who knew? Whether it’s good or not, I still don’t know - next time, for sure, I'll seek it out. 

At the bottarga stall, we found Marta, a charming thoroughly enthusiastic purveyor of this local classic. Her elaborate descriptions and endless gestures were completely unintelligible to us, but we were OK with that, we were in heaven. One thing we did understand was that for pasta, it is better to use the harder (aged) bottarga because they will be easier to grate. The fresh ones can be sliced thinly drizzled with olive oil or served with buttered bread or in a salad. Later on that night, one of the pasta dishes we had was a heavenly combo of clams and bottarga. 

My only previous experience with bottarga was in Japan where this dried mullet roe is called "karasumi", produced in southern Japan. It is an expensive delicacy ($$$), sliced thin and eaten while sipping sake. And I have not had the Greek and Korean versions - yet. On this occasion I bought whole dried bottarga, pregrated, and tuna bottarga from Marta at the market, other brands from an enoteca down the street from the bed and breakfast where we were staying and again some more from a delicatessen across from the San Benedetto market. You might say I went 'all in' for bottarga. The pre-grated, powdered form of bottarga lacked the depth and richness of the classic version when freshly grated, so I do not recommend it. Grating isn’t too much work and it is worth the extra three minutes. Dried mullet roe isn’t for everybody but, oh for those who LOVE seafood and the wonderful bounties of the sea, it is divine. Now (or until my supply runs out) I can have one of my favorite spaghetti dishes at home anytime - until I must return to this Mediterranean gem to stock up again. As idyllic as that sounds, for bottarga lovers, supply is an issue, I’ve seen it available at some markets but not consistently.   If you can’t hop on a plane to Sardinia, your best bet is to get it online.