Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia con Bottarga di Muggine
Sardinia — coastal Sardinia, especially Cagliari and Oristano
Black squid ink pasta from Sardinia topped with grated bottarga di muggine (dried grey mullet roe) — a combination that celebrates two of the island's most distinctive marine products. The pasta is cooked in a simple cuttlefish ink-and-garlic sauce (the ink dissolved in white wine), then bottarga is grated generously over at service. The two products are both intensely saline and deeply oceanic, but in different registers: the squid ink provides iodine-rich, sea-deep flavour while the bottarga adds a dry, pressing saltiness with egg-yolk richness. Raw olive oil and parsley bridge them.