Pasta with sea urchins

Last Updated: August 12, 2023

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Spaghetti with sea urchins

Pasta with sea urchins is a delicious Sicilian dish with an intense flavor and an inviting sea aroma. If you are lucky enough to find fresh sea urchins just caught on the counter of your fishmonger, I advise you not to miss this opportunity. Even for me, who live in a city by the sea, it rarely happens; therefore, since pasta with sea urchins is one of the most requested dishes but still not present in my blog, here I am with this tasty recipe.
The dish requires very few ingredients and its preparation is really simple, if not for the time needed to clean the curls and recover the delicious yellow/ orange eggs. To overcome this challenge, I suggest you protect your hand with a thick glove and use a well-sharpened scissors.
Below, I give you some simple tips to make a dish that will make you lick your lips.

Preparation of pasta with sea urchins

To prepare the pasta with sea urchins, the first thing to do is to open the curls and extract the eggs. During this operation, be sure to protect the hand holding the hedgehog with a glove and get a pair of scissors.
Before you start, prepare two bowls. In a large bowl, dissolve 35 g of salt in a liter of water to rinse the curl and remove internal impurities. In another smaller bowl, empty in this case, collect the liquid inside the hedgehog to further enrich the dressing of the pasta.
Take the hedgehog and lay it on the palm of your hand so you can see the mouth. Insert the tip of the scissors in the center of the operculum and make a small cut up to half of the hedgehog. Then turn the scissors and continue cutting horizontally around the hedgehog. Do this over the empty bowl to collect the liquid inside.
Once the hedgehog is opened, dip it in the salt water, moving it gently to remove impurities. Use the tip of the scissors to remove as much as possible the dark parts, leaving only the eggs. After a final rinse, clean the hedgehog well and collect the eggs with a teaspoon, putting them in a glass. Repeat the process until all the curls are finished.
Filter the water inside the curls using a very narrow strainer and set aside.
Put on the heat a pot with water to cook the spaghetti and, when it reaches the boil, salt and add the pasta.
Meanwhile, prepare the seasoning. In a pan, pour plenty of oil together with a clove of garlic lightly crushed with the back of a knife, a little chopped parsley and a pinch of chili. Add 4 or 5 tablespoons of the liquid filtered with a strainer and let fry.
Remove the clove of garlic, add a pinch of pepper and when there are 2 minutes left to cook the pasta, transfer the spaghetti to the pan. Sauté the dough, so that it releases some of its starch and creates a tasty cream. If necessary, add a ladle of cooking water and complete the cooking.
Remove the pan from the heat and add half of the curly eggs. The curly eggs should not be cooked but only slightly warmed. Mix for about a minute and arrange. Add the remaining raw curls on the spaghetti and complete with a final sprinkling of parsley and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Ingredients pasta with sea urchins

To prepare pasta with sea urchins, you will need:
• 12 fresh sea urchins
• 200 g of spaghetti
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 bunch of parsley
• Extra virgin olive oil q.b.
• Sale
• Pepe
• Chilli pepper (to taste)

Spaghetti with sea urchins
Preparation of pasta with sea urchins
Ingredients pasta with sea urchins

Recipe for 2 portions
Preparation time: Breve
Difficulty: Facile
Wine suggested:
Per accompagnare gli spaghetti con i ricci di mare, vi suggeriamo di abbinarli con un vino rosato ottenuto dalle uve Negroamaro tramite la tecnica del salasso. Questo tipo di vino presenta tipicamente una buona struttura e si sposa bene con i sapori intensi del piatto.
Un’alternativa interessante è il Grillo, un vino bianco siciliano elegante e con un buon carattere. Questo vino è caratterizzato da un sapore sapido, che si abbina perfettamente ai freschi aromi agrumati e marini dei ricci di mare.

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