Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Artichoke Hearts with Bottarga

"So you made pizza with zucchini and what?" This is what I asked my brother when he told me to check  out his pizza on My Monday Pie.  Zucchini and bottarga.  "What's bottarga again?  A new and trendy, terrain-specific vegetable like say ramps?" Nope. Cured mullet roe.

I have since sampled this pie and it was very good.  It left me bottarga intrigued.  What else can I pair it with?  Where can I get it?  And why have I gone so long without it?  

Then one lazy evening I am watching Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations on Netflix and he is traveling in Sardinia.  His beautiful wife is describing the dynamic flavor combination of artichokes and bottarga in her lovely Italian accent. The next thing I know I am surfing the internet, planning my next shopping trip around where I can get bottarga.

As mentioned, bottarga is the roe removed from the inside of a fish, in this case mullet, though sometimes tuna, cured, dried and grated over a dish for flavor much like you would Parmesan.  Also like Parmesan, you can buy it whole and grate it yourself right before serving or buy it already grated. 

I may have mentioned this before but Buon'Italia is my go-to Italian market of choice in NYC.  I love  Chelsea Market and this is a wonderful time of year to walk the High Line.   There is always the famous Eataly but Buon'Italia is less of a circus show and more reasonably priced.  And have I mentioned the High Line?  

I may have gotten carried away here with the pictures, but artichokes are beautiful and so is Manhattan.











Artichoke Hearts with Bottarga

  • 6 artichokes
  • 1 lemon
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon of grated bottarga
  • chopped fresh parsley
  • butter
To trim your artichokes, remove the outer leaves until they start to become yellow and tender.  The heart will be cone-shaped.  Cut the hearts in halves or quarters.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.   In an oven-proof baking dish, toss with the artichoke hearts with the olive oil and parsley.   Add a few teaspoons of water to the bottom of the baking dish.  Grease a piece of parchment paper with butter and   place butter side down over the artichokes.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Toss with freshly squeezed lemon, sea salt and grated bottarga.

    6 comments:

    1. TIna, thanks for reaching out. I checked out your website and it looks great. I love the history and recipes, as well. Good luck and I will send out a tweet!

      ReplyDelete
    2. Truly is a great recipe per Tina's comments! Anna Maria Fish Company's Bottarga is fantastic-truly a unique delicacy and so glad to have had the pleasure of trying it. It is fresh, bright and briny unlike a lot of the imported bottarga.

      ReplyDelete
    3. Most of your preparations are pretty quaint for me as I don't get many ingredients readily available here. And I enjoy going through them, especially the way you unwind them.

      Lovely pics, truly. And bottarga is totally new for me, and sounds formidable!

      ReplyDelete
    4. Interesting recipe. Hope its ok with you if we paste a link to your recipe here:
      http://www.myrecipepost.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl?category=other&item=4517171968

      Thanks,

      Shurik

      ReplyDelete
    5. In Las vegas most popular Arax Group is designed to provide insight about Bottarga,Gray Mullet Roe,Mugil Cephalus,Sardinian Italian Bottarga,Egyptian Dry Bottarga.
      Bottarga To Buy

      ReplyDelete