lol...Sumner...when you pick a fresh sea urchin from the ocean and not under the frige... :) you'll find little tiny red eggs like Caviar very sweet and mixed with fresh plum tomato sauce makes for a delicious condiment for pasta, in Japan a dish like this goes for around $20 and up, in sicily it's free if you know were to fish them fresh.
Freshly picked from the bottom of the Mediterranean ocean, we kept them covered in algea to keep them alive while taking them home.
Manila clams and soft pieces of sea urchin add a distinctive flavor to a white wine sauce enriched with more sea urchin roe. Red sea urchins are also harvested from the deep waters of the northern Channel Islands, off Santa Barbara. The best roe is judged by its color — from dark yellow to pumpkin-y orange.
A 'riccio' is a hedgehog in Italian. A 'riccio al mare' is a sea hedgehog or in other words a sea urchin.
You'll need 50 of them to prepare a dish to satisfy 4 people.
It is a dish which can be prepared very quickly and one with a rich natural sauce.
A word of warning, however. It is important to distinguish between the masculine and feminine sea urchins.
The former are black and flat while the latter are a rounded with a reddy brown color. As we are eating the eggs of the sea urchin it is the females we want to get hold of.
ingredients
50 sea urchins, (clams optional) garlic, parsley, peproncino, 400g of tagliolini or spaghetti, white wine, olive oil, salt to taste
making it
Once the urchins have been collected they should be cut open with a pair of scissors, literally cutting the hard shell into two to greach the fleshy bit inside.
With a spoon the egg of the female urchin should then be scooped out and placed inside a glass container.
When all 50 have been done turn the eggs with the olive oil, parsley and a pinch of salt.
Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the tagliolini pasta.
To one side heat more olive oil, peperoncino, white wine and garlic in a frying pan.
Just as the garlic is turning a yellow color the pasta should be ready to drain and be added to the pan.
Toss to cover all the pasta and then turn it out into a serving dish.
Add the sea urchins eggs and lightly toss again.
Enjoy...!
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Comments: 25
Thanks Marco.
Forgive me.....
I had 'sea urchin froth' served with fresh Dungeness crab, a gorgeous poached oyster, and some perfectly cooked spot prawns at the Herbfarm and it was surprisingly tasteless. Maybe my expectations were off - I expected a definitive flavor - but it was very 'essence of ocean' (it seemed like a sweetish version of the foamy ocean water I'd swallow while playing in the waves) and less of a specific 'critter' taste.
Interesting, but not something I'd go out of my way for; especially when it takes a lot of the critters to make a serving. I'll stick to crab.
~km
Im glad you can include this recipe for your christmas gift.
Julie,
I personally like a semi sweet white wine like a German Reisling.
Jackie,
I'll have my mom prepare when you go visit her, and don't worry about the rating.
April,
you can also saute the urchin eggs but it will lose a bit of the fresh ocean taste.
Sumner,
unfortunately I don't live on the ocean anymore, but I lived in the mediterranean for 15 years were I visit my family each year, and yes I guess we are even... :)
Shannon,
urchin eggs are sweet if that wasn't the case then they must of mixed some other concoction with it.
Km,
sea urchin is best when made with siple ingredients or right out of the shell rinsed out with ocean water and a squeeze of lemon.
Aurora,
a blind fold will work to ...clothes pin on the nose...optional... :)
i live very near the ocean, three blocks in fact, but apparently not near a sea urchin-filled ocean. i don't think i have ever seen them for sale around here. but this sounds great!