Food Lust People Love: condiment recipes

Scallop roe bottarga is a condiment made with fresh roe, lots of salt and time. It’s wonderful grated on almost anything, adding a lovely briny flavor.

Food Lust People Love: Scallop roe bottarga is a condiment made with fresh roe, lots of salt and time. It’s wonderful grated on almost anything, adding a lovely briny flavor.

I’ve got to admit that while I love fresh scallops and we buy them from time to time when we are here in the Channel Islands, I’m not really a fan of the roe. I’ve tried cooking it with the scallops but even a bunch of garlic can’t help me get over the texture. They’re just kinda spongy.

So every time I take them off and discard them, I feel bad. The ones here are so plump and pretty - such a vibrant orange! - that it seems a shame to waste them. A couple of years ago, I was in Phoenicia supermarket in Houston with its great deli counter and stacked shelves of tasty imported goods when I came across bottarga. I had never heard of it before.

I looked it up when I got home. Bottarga is the salted, cured, dried pouch of fish roe, most commonly from the grey mullet or bluefin tuna. According to my search, it’s an ancient delicacy dating back to Phoenician and Egyptian times, and it remains a staple in Mediterranean cooking, especially in Italy, Sardinia, and Greece.

Well, the small piece of bottarga in the deli section of Phoenicia was quite expensive for something I’d just like to try, so I left it behind but, when faced with throwing out yet more scallop roe, I remembered and it occurred to me that roe is roe, after all, and maybe I could make my own bottarga.

Turns out I’m not the first person to have this idea because I came across a few recipes/instructions for salting and curing scallop roe and I decided to give it a try. Took me two attempts to get the timings right but I was very pleased with the end result.

Scallop Roe Bottarga

Avoid cooking or heating bottarga directly, instead, add it as a finishing touch to hot dishes. My recipe is adapted from one on Peckham Kitchen.

Ingredients

Trimmed scallop roe

Sea salt

Time

Patience!

Method

Soak the roe for 24 hours in a 10% salt solution, i.e. 10g salt for every 100ml cold water, in the refrigerator.

The next day, remove the roe from the salt water, drain and pat dry with paper towels.

On a deep plate or shallow bowl where the roe will fit in a single layer, pour sea salt flakes to create a flat, even bed for the roe. Place the roe on top in one layer. Cover the roe with more salt. Place the plate in the refrigerator.

After 24 hours, remove the roe from the salt. Gently brush away any salt that has stuck to it. Mine was completely wet and the salt dissolved both times I made this. I tipped the bowl for this photos so you can see the liquid pooled on the side, if you squint just right.

Pat the roe dry. Rinse the plate, discarding the salt and any liquid that has collected.

Wash and dry the plate and cover it with fresh salt. Add the roe and cover it with salt as well. Return the plate to the refrigerator.

Repeat this process for several days after which time the roes should have firmed up. The first time I made scallop roe bottarga, I did this for four days and determined that a whole week would result in firmer roe. So that’s what I did the second time.

The traditional method to dry the roe further so it can be grated, is to place it in a single layer of cheesecloth and hang in a cool dry place for 10 to 15 days. This would no doubt work if you have a cool, dry place. Summertime on an island was not ideal.

I chose a more modern method which is what I recommend if you have access to a dehydrator. Dehydrate the roe, covered in whatever salt is still stuck to them, at 122°F or 50°C for 48 hours. The first batch, with its shorter salting time, needed longer to dry out.

I store mine, still covered in its light layer of salt, in a glass container in the refrigerator, brushing off all of the salt well when I want to grate some. It keeps for ages like that.

Using a sharp grater, like a microplane, you can sprinkle bottarga on anything that needs a little saltiness – where you might add Parmesan, perhaps - with the added bonus of a delightful briny, marine flavor. It’s magical on buttered pasta! Or scrambled eggs. Or risotto.

Enjoy!

I grated the one I'd rubbed free of salt for these photos. Isn't the color marvelous! Enjoy!

Welcome to the 19th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter S. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the S recipes below: