Name: Spaghetti with bottarga and fried egg Recipe
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: Salt; 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided; 2 cloves garlic, chopped (about 2 teaspoons); 1/8 teaspoon red chile flakes; 2/3 cup chicken stock; 4 large organic eggs at room temperature; 1 pound spaghetti; 1/2 pound rapini (also called broccoli rabe or broccoli di rape), cut to 2-inch lengths (about 3 cups); 4 tablespoons Manicaretti bottarga (outer skin removed, inner part grated to a coarse powder)

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By Betty Hallock

and Hiro Sone

March 14, 2007

Chef Hiro Sone tops a tangle of spaghetti and tender, young rapini with a sunny-side-up egg, showered with bottarga (dried tuna roe). Soon after he puts the eggs in the hot pan, just when the edges begin to foam and color, he adds a little water and covers them, allowing the steam to barely cook the top of the egg. “The idea is to mix it all together,” Sone says, “the warm egg yolk into the pasta. So when you cook the egg, make sure the yolk remains runny.”

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Salt

5 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 cloves garlic, chopped (about 2 teaspoons)

⅛ teaspoon red chile flakes

⅔ cup chicken stock

4 large organic eggs at room temperature

1 pound spaghetti

½ pound rapini (also called broccoli rabe or broccoli di rape), cut to 2-inch lengths (about 3 cups)

4 tablespoons Manicaretti bottarga (outer skin removed, inner part grated to a coarse powder)

Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil, adding enough salt for it to taste like seawater. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, the garlic and chile flakes over medium heat. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the oil starts to sizzle, then reduce the heat to low and shake the pan, stirring constantly. Cook until the garlic just begins to color, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and increase the heat to high. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is reduced by half. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Break each of the eggs into a separate small bowl (you will need four bowls). Heat a 10-inch frying pan over high heat until it’s hot enough to sizzle when a drop of water is sprinkled in. Add 2 tablespoons oil; swirl it in the pan to heat. Place the eggs in the pan one at a time, making sure they do not touch each other. Add 1 tablespoon water and immediately cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Cook 30 seconds to 1 minute, to desired doneness (the yolks should still be runny). Remove the lid and take the pan off the heat, but keep in a warm place until the pasta is ready.

Add the spaghetti to the boiling water. Cook to almost al dente, about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat; add the rapini to the pot with the spaghetti. Stir briefly.

Quickly drain the pasta and rapini over a large bowl, reserving some of the pasta water to use if needed to adjust the consistency of the sauce. Pour the garlic-chicken stock mixture over the drained pasta and rapini. Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons bottarga and toss to combine. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, and if the pasta sauce is a little too dry, add a little reserved pasta water (only enough to keep the pasta moving in the pan).

Divide the pasta and rapini onto four hot plates. Place an egg on top of each serving. Sprinkle an equal amount of the remaining bottarga over each plate and drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Serve immediately.

From Hiro Sone, chef and co-owner of Ame restaurant.

Manicaretti bottarga (salted, pressed and dried tuna roe) is available at select gourmet markets.
Rapini is available at some farmers markets and supermarkets. Select young, small stalks.
Remove the eggs from the refrigerator one hour before cooking.

Betty Hallock

Betty Hallock is deputy Food editor at the Los Angeles Times. She has co-written four cookbooks, including “Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles,” “Amá: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen” and “Baking at République.” She started her journalism career at the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American in New York, worked on the L.A. Times’ Business desk, and was interim food editor at Los Angeles Magazine. Hallock also helped launch a food and nutrition vertical for wellness app RoundGlass. She’s a graduate of UCLA and New York University.