Spotted: A culinary showcase and product show in New Orleans, LA
Cost: $18.50 per 2.5 ounce jar
Attraction: Label advertised "Sardinian Caviar," definitely worth investigation.
Where to find: Straight from the importer, Gourmet Sardinia
Have you ever tried to make miso soup at home and found that it fell a little flat? Have you ever been underwhelmed by a restaurant's Caesar salad? That was you noticing the absence of a certain je ne sais quoi scientists like to categorize as the taste of savory, otherwise known as umami, the elusive fifth flavor. This little jar is a giant handful of orange, flaky savory.
Miso soup and Caesar salad are classic expressions of umami. Miso soup contains a one-two punch of benito flake (cured, dried fish) and miso (fermented soybean paste); while a Caesar salad is topped with aged Parmesan cheese and must have anchovy paste in the dressing. Skimping on either of these components results in the blahs. Bottarga di Muggine refers to the salted and dried roe of mullet, a Sardinian staple that works much like benito flake or anchovy paste.
I won't wax nerdy about nucleotides, amino acids and whatnot. Boost a dish's umami levels the natural way with certain fish or other high protein products that have been dried, cured, or fermented. Those pungent flavors of anchovy and bottarga meld into your dish and prove one and one can equal three. Bottarga gives off the same feeling you get when you describe a steak as buttery, but with a hint of the sea. Introduce any of your favorite vegetables to bottarga through olive oil, and you'll get the best sautéed zucchini/broccoli/cauliflower you've ever had. Seriously, it's an instant food high.
As with most things Italian, the best way to eat bottarga is simply. Spaghetti alla bottarga only needs contain spaghetti, olive oil, bottarga flake, and salt and pepper, but you can add some parsley or breadcrumbs like a restaurant. Try it, and next time you crave a snack at night, see if you don't start boiling water and reaching for bottarga instead of a pint of ice cream. Mix a little grated bottarga in with sea salt and finish off your roasted or mashed potatoes. Put your own take on a classic caviar presentation by serving a pinch of bottarga over a fresh chevre omelet, or add it to cream cheese for your bagel — instant lox flavor. My ultimate use for bottarga involves large white Italian beans, oil, and maybe a little marjoram from the garden. I toss everything with some grated bottarga, and let it sit for a little while. The flavor deepens with every minute, I swear.
High-end delis carry the pieces of roe whole, which are sold by the ounce. You can buy a small hunk of bottarga and shave it onto dishes like you would a truffle. A small bit of bottarga costs considerably less than a truffle, however, and last longer. You can wrap it tight and keep it in the freezer, which also makes it easier to shave, but that all seems like so much work when a few pinches do the trick.
Maggie Savarino Dutton is an industry veteran who has played bartender, sommelier and line cook and who now consults. She writes "Search & Distill," which appears every Wednesday in the Seattle Weekly, and The Wine Offensive, a blog about wine, food, and anything else.
Photograph by Maggie Savarino Dutton, "Point of Purchase" photograph by Roadsidepictures via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Pantry" photograph by Áslaug Snorradóttir.
