Spaghetti con Bottarga (spaghetti w/ bottarga di tonno, parsley & pepperoncini)

by Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
September 15, 2006

BELLAVITAE [CLOSED]
24 Minetta Ln
(6th Ave & MacDougal St)
New York, NY 10012
212-473-5121

I feel rather delinquent, as I have just discovered this great summer dish, but now we are already transitioning into fall. Damn! It almost makes me mad. But I still decided to write about the spaghetti con bottarga at Bellavitae because it’s so amazing. I had it the last day it was on the menu for the season. It was so perfect that I returned the next evening, desperately wanting to eat it again, but of course, the kitchen was out of bottarga. I wanted to cry.

The pasta is your basic spaghetti pepperoncino — spaghetti with oil, parsley, garlic and pepperoncini — simple but classic. But the addition of shaved bottarga di tonno, cured tuna roe, makes this simple dish stand out. The Taiwanese are big producers of , so I am quite accustomed to eating this type of cured and pressed delight. However, I’ve never had tuna roe in this form, and certainly not with pasta. Bottarga is cured, so it’s very salty, but grating it over pasta gives it a very elegant and flavorful touch. The tuna bottarga, is imported from Sicily or Sardinia, and though it is available year-round, this dish is quintessentially a summer one, explains chef Pasquale Martinelli.

You may be wondering why I keep going on about a dish that you won’t be able to try until next year. But as it turns out, Pasquale says that they generally have bottarga available, and in the coming season, they will use it to dress salads like raddichio. In addition, there are regulars, including director Noah Baumbach, who come in specifically for the spaghetti con bottarga year-round. I see both sides of the coin, and, while I understand why it’s important to keep with the seasonality of certain foods, I like it so much that I just can’t bare to go without it when the craving strikes. So the bottom line is, if you want it and don’t see it on the menu, ask for it. If they have bottarga available, then they’ll be able to make the spaghetti. What a relief!

I very much enjoy the experience and food at Bellavitae, but it seems that sometimes they become so busy that they fall short on attention to detail and consistency. My spaghetti was undercooked, but even at that, I was so entranced by the flavors that I didn’t mind. Sitting at the bar in the back dining room, I also witnessed some mishaps on orders. But overall, the selection and quality of the food was still very good.

On my return the second evening, I tried the squid-ink pasta with tomato sauce and cuttlefish, which I ordered in place of my beloved bottarga. I think I was just heartbroken since I was stuck on the idea of the original pasta. The squid-ink pasta didn’t do it for me. The pasta was too soft for my taste, and the cuttlefish just doesn’t have the same kind of umph that bottarga does. What can I say? I’m a girl who knows what she wants… to eat!

Also in Greenwich Village, Italian, Pasta