History

Sea urchins have been harvested along the Sardinian coast for as long as anyone has written about it, and around Cagliari the ricci season traditionally runs from November to April, when the roe is full. The dish is deliberately minimal: the urchin roe is scooped from the shell and folded through hot spaghetti with olive oil, a little garlic and parsley, and nothing else, because cream or tomato would bury it. The catch has been under pressure in recent years and the regional fishery has been restricted to let stocks recover, so the plate now appears on Marina menus only when the season and the rules allow it.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Molluscs

Make it at home

Yield Serves 2Hands-on 20 minTotal 25 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 200g spaghetti
  • The roe of 20 to 25 sea urchins, or 80g prepared urchin roe
  • 1 garlic clove, lightly crushed
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon chopped flat parsley
  • Salt

Method

  1. Open the urchins from the soft underside with scissors, rinse out the liquid and lift the five roe strips into a bowl. Keep them cold.
  2. Warm the oil gently with the garlic in a wide pan for 2 minutes, then remove the garlic and take the pan off the heat.
  3. Cook the spaghetti in well salted water until just short of al dente.
  4. Drain, keeping a ladle of pasta water, and toss the spaghetti in the warm oil with a splash of the water to make it glossy.
  5. Off the heat, fold in two thirds of the roe so it melts into a sauce without cooking, then check the salt.
  6. Plate and finish with the remaining raw roe and the parsley.

Tip from the editors. The pan must be off the heat when the roe goes in. Direct heat turns it grainy and dulls the sea flavour.

Where to eat spaghetti ai ricci di mare

Spaghetti ai ricci di mare in Cagliari

Featured by TableJourney as a signature dish of Cagliari. See where to eat Spaghetti ai ricci di mare in Cagliari or the Cagliari signature dishes guide.

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