Pasta with Bottarga is one of my favorite dishes. I prepare it all the time, especially when we have guests.
In fact, it is very easy to make (if you do it the night before, it’s even better!), it is very good for you (you only use raw ingredients), it has a wonderful story and it is DELICIOUS.
This passion is spreading. I served Pasta with Bottarga in NY to my good Roman friend Annamaria when she visited, in January.
The other day, I was invited to a dinner party at her home in Rome. She prepared OUR Pasta with Bottarga.
We dined on her splendid terrace overlooking the Ara Pacis (BTW, the Romans LOVED bottarga. How perfect a location it was!???). Now, all her friends know the story and the recipe… It’s spreading fast!
Annamaria very proudly said that she was able to find Gustiamo’s mullet bottarga, Oro di Cabras made by Fratelli Manca, in the best specialty shop in Roma.
Out of her way, she said, but really the best and worth the schlepp!
If you are in America, you are lucky, because you can buy Bottarga di Cabras from the comfort of your home, with a click of the mouse, here!
I recently purchased a vacuum-sealed 1-pound piece of bottarga di muggine (produced by Smeralda Di E, Piras Sas)
and frankly found it to have a pronounced bitter aftertaste in the back of the throat that was not at all pleasant and ruined a dish of my wife’s hand-rolled and hand-cut fettucini. The bottarga was sealed and refrigerated from the day I purchased it 2 weeks ago,but curiously there was no expiration date on the package. I had been told that, if refrigerated, it would keep, even unsealed, almost indefinitely. Am I to assume, then, that this bitterness an acquired taste or has the bottarga I purchased gone bad? Any thoughts? Thanks. John
Dear John, so sorry you had a bad experience. I am not familiar with the producer you indicated. We have always purchased our mullet bottarga from Flli Manca, a family in Cabras, near Oristano, Sardegna. Mario Manca, the patriarch, told to us about some bad bottarga from Sardegna and we talked about it here: http://gustiamo.typepad.com/gustiblog/2012/03/bottarga.html. I personally love bottarga and love Manca’s Oro di Cabras (that’s the name). You can find it here: http://bit.ly/qnKXJf. If you wish to talk to us, pls call us at 718 860 2949. Grazie mille!