1999 January 17th Sunday Telegraph Magazine

Salty, delicious and strange, bottarga will transform a dish of pasta into a Scicilian feast, writes Giorgio Locatelli, in the third part of his four-week series on Italian cookery.

Bottarga is not something you come across much in this country; it's not even particulary well known in Italy. The dried pressed roe of the tuna or grey mullet, it comes from Sardinia and Sicily. It has a wonderfully stong fishy taste, like caviar, and is good enough to eat on it's own.

....you will find that you can marry it with just about anything - the fresher and lighter the other ingredients the better. It is fantastic shaved over a salad of rocket and mozzarella, for instance, or a plate of fried eggs.....

I won't pretend that getting hold of bottarga is easy; if you can't find an Italian delicatessen that stocks it , you can order it from Stefano Vallebona.....who suppplies the Dorchester Hotel, Harvey Nichols Food Hall and me.