Spaghetti ai ricci di mare
Photo: Civa61 · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

Sea urchin has been eaten on the Alghero quays for as long as anyone has fished them, split with a knife and scooped out with bread while still dripping. The pasta version is a restaurant refinement of that habit, and the town still runs a spring rassegna named for the urchin at the port fish market. Pressure on the stock changed the picture. The Sardinian regional government now fixes the harvest window by decree each year, reserving it to licensed professional fishermen, closing the season in spring and capping the weekly take, so the dish is genuinely seasonal and disappears from menus for months at a time.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Molluscs

Make it at home

Yield Serves 2Hands-on 15 minTotal 25 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 200g spaghetti
  • The roe of 20 to 25 sea urchins, about 60g
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 50ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small dried chilli
  • Sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon chopped flat parsley

Method

  1. Set half the urchin roe aside in a bowl at room temperature.
  2. Boil the spaghetti in well salted water until one minute short of al dente.
  3. Warm the oil in a wide pan with the whole garlic clove and the chilli over low heat, then remove both before they colour.
  4. Add the remaining roe to the warm oil off the heat and mash it with a fork into a loose cream.
  5. Drain the pasta, keeping a ladle of the water, and toss it in the pan with a splash of the water until glossy.
  6. Take the pan off the heat, fold in the reserved raw roe and the parsley, and serve at once.

Tip from the editors. Never let the roe boil. Above about 60C it turns grainy and loses the iodine note that makes the dish.

Where to eat spaghetti ai ricci di mare

Spaghetti ai ricci di mare in Alghero

Rafel ★ 4.2

€€€ SeafoodLido

Two kilometres from the Alghero old town, Rafel pairs a covered cocktail veranda with a seafood kitchen and beach service with umbrellas after lunch.

OrderSpaghetti ai ricci when the sea urchin season is open, lobster alla catalana when it is not.

Directions

Mercato del Pescato Locale ★ 4.5

€€ SeafoodPorto

The Alghero port fish market on the Banchina Rafael Catardi is where restaurant kitchens buy the morning's landings before the town wakes. TableJourney pick.

Why locals goAlghero fishermen sell their own landings on the quay, and the market is finished by mid-morning.

Directions

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