Winner of the James Beard/ KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year 2000 and Winner of the Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food 2000.
 
 
May 20, 2013
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How to Celebrate — Pasta for 8 in 20 minutes

Perciatelli with Mahimahi and Bottarga

 
About 5:30 pm on May 8, 2000 I learned that I had won the James Beard/Kitchen Aid Cookbook of the Year and the James Beard Best Cookbook for Writing on Food. This award is like the Oscars of the cookbook world and I had just won best picture and best actor it felt like. Of course I had to celebrate, but how was I ever going to get ahold of my friends at this hour. To make a long story short — 2 hours later my good friends Barbara Shulgasser Parker and her husband Norman Parker, Russ and Kathy Parsons, Martha Rose Shulman, Lois Fishman, and Stuart and Helen Garber were crowded around the kitchen table with about 8 bottles of champagne toasting. There was no food, but I quickly decided that the winner of the cookbook of the year had to feed his guests and this is what I made. And boy was it good; very delicious. Perciatelli is a spaghetti with a whole in the middle and bottarga is dried pressed and salted tuna roe that is usually grated onto pasta; it can be found in good Italian markets and gourmet stores.

7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
   
1/2 cup dry white wine
   
  Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
   
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
   
1 large shallot, about the size of a small onion, finely chopped
   
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
 
2 ripe tomatoes, cut in half, seeds squeezed out, and grated against the largest holes of a grater
   
3 tablespoons freshly grated bottarga
   
1 1/4 pound mahimahi, cut into bite-size pieces
   
1 1/2 pounds perciatelli

1. In a ceramic dish, marinate the fish in 3 tablespoons olive oil and the white wine and season with salt and pepper. Leave in the refrigerator for as long as you can, ideally 1 to 2 hours, but 20 minutes is fine if that is all you can manage. Then drain and save the marinade.

2. In a casserole, heat the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat with the garlic cloves and when they begin to turn light brown, remove and discard. Cook the shallot and parsley until the shallot is translucent, about 4 minutes, stirring. Add the tomato, bottarga, salt and black pepper. Stir and cook until it starts sizzling rapidly. Reduce the heat to low, add the marinade, stir and simmer until a bit denser, about 20 minutes. Increase the heat to high and add the fish, cook until the fish is about to break up, about 8 minutes, stirring. Check the seasoning.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of abundantly salted water to a boil, then cook the pasta until al dente and drain. Toss the pasta with the sauce and serve.
 
Makes 8 servings

Posted: 06/21/2007

© 1999-2013 Clifford A. Wright