Flying Sea Urchin Pasta with Fish Roe and Chives from 'The Catch'

Updated March 27, 2019

I had my first bite of raw fish sushi in high school, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I finally persuaded myself to try uni. The delightfully pure saltiness of the roe was a surprise; somehow I had expected something more funky. Its subtle, oceany richness captivated me, and I've been eating it at sushi joints ever since. Until this week, however, I had never brought some home to cook with myself.

Ben Sargent's Flying Sea Urchin Pasta is, as he says in The Catch, a great way to introduce uni-newbies to the greatness of the ingredient. By blending the uni with olive oil and pasta water, Sargent creates a silky and unbelievably creamy cream-less sauce. Fresh flying fish roe adds plenty of textural interest, and a final dash of chives brighten the bowl up.

Why I picked this recipe: I can't get enough uni.

What worked: Everything here worked perfectly; the sauce was a snap to blend up, and then all that was left to do was a little bit of stirring.

What didn't: No problems here.

Suggested tweaks: If you don't want to shell out for a quarter pound of uni, you can easily divide the recipe in half.

Reprinted with permission from The Catch: Sea-to-Table Recipes, Stories & Secrets by Ben Sargent with Peter Kaminsky. Copyright 2013. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. All rights reserved. Available wherever books are sold.

Recipe Details

Flying Sea Urchin Pasta with Fish Roe and Chives from 'The Catch'

Active 20 mins

Total 20 mins

Serves 4 servings

Ingredients

1/4 pound sea urchin roe sacs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt
1/2 pound spaghetti
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon tobiko (flying fish roe) or masago (smelt roe)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 chive flower, separated into blossoms (optional)

Directions

In a blender, combine the sea urchin roe, olive oil, and cayenne pepper and puree.
In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the spaghetti until al dente. Just before draining, measure out 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and add it back to the pot. Add the butter and stir to thoroughly coat the spaghetti. Add the sea urchin puree and 3 tablespoons of the pasta cooking water and stir over medium heat, adding more pasta water by the tablespoon, using most of it, until the pasta is coated with a creamy sauce. Do not boil. Remove the pot from the heat and taste for salt.
Divide the pasta among 4 bowls, top with tobiko and chives plus chive blossoms, if using, and serve.

Pasta Mains

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
432	Calories
22g	Fat
45g	Carbs
14g	Protein

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories	432
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 22g	28%
Saturated Fat 6g	30%
Cholesterol 57mg	19%
Sodium 504mg	22%
Total Carbohydrate 45g	16%
Dietary Fiber 2g	7%
Total Sugars 2g
Protein 14g
Vitamin C 5mg	25%
Calcium 21mg	2%
Iron 5mg	26%
Potassium 227mg	5%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.