Fresh Tagliatelle with Spicy Uni
W loves uni. W also loves fresh home-made pasta. Combining the two seemed the next logical step. Having dabbled with both traditional Sicilian pasta recipes with sea urchin sauce and Japanese soba recipes with uni gravy, fusing the two also seemed the next logical step. The noodles are hand-cut from an egg-rich dough which cooks up to an exquisitely silken texture, while the sauce is a blend of shio uni (Japanese salt-preserved uni, available in jars from the sashimi section of the Japanese supermarket), mirin, sake, red chilli flakes, and sansho pepper. I first saute some minced fresh red chilli and sliced garlic in butter till aromatic, then toss in the just-boiled pasta along with the uni mixture and some minced shiso. The plated pasta is then topped with finely grated lemon zest and daikon shoots.