Homemade Botargo di Tonno. Botargo is a air-dried salt-cured fish egg or roe which considered as delicacy in Mediterranean cuisine. Botarga di Tonno is botarga made of tuna roe, while bottarga is refers product made of grey mullet fish or called bottarga di muggine which is the most pricey and expensive. This is one of the seafood charcutteries featured in my blog, you can served this bottarga with my Homemade Hot Smoked Salmon and Homemade Gravlax (Dill and Honey Cured Salmon Fillet).
Bottarga is popular name in English and Italian, while it’s popular with other names around the world; karasumi (Japan) butàriga (Sardinian), botarga (Occitan, Spanish, and Catalan), poutargue or boutargue (French), butarga (Portuguese), batarekh or butarkhah (Arabic), tarama or haviar (Turkey) and avgotaraho (Greek). Here in Indonesia bottarga possibly translated as telur ikan tuna asin, while in Malaysia there also salted and cured fish roe called telur terubuk masin made of the roe of freshwater fish Toli Shad.
Botargo di Tonno is made from the roe sac of tuna, beside tuna or mullet roe, bottarga can also made of swordfish, halibut, herring, flounder, white seabass, weakfish or mackerel or other small size fish egg with sac, so never made it with salmon roe. My fellow blogger friend Merryn of Merry’sMenu even Making Bottarga from Flathead Fish Roe. I’m making mine from tuna, the fishmonger told me that it’s dogtooth tuna fish roe. I actually specially ask my fishmonger to save the tuna’s roe for this fish egg seafoood charcuterie project. The Minangkabau descent fishmonger guy actually used to save the roe and bring it to feed his family and never even though to sell it because it’s considered as delicacy, his wife used to make Gulai telur Ikan (Fish Roe Curry) or Pindang Telur Ikan (Spicy sour Fish Roe Soup) with it.
How too choose the egg roe for making homemade bottarga ? first step is make sure you choose the very fresh egg roe with complete and unbroken sac attached and covering the roe. Never used any fish roe broken sac because the salt will penetrated too much into the roe and made it too salty and almost unedible once it cured. FRESHNESS is the KEY of DELICIOUSNESS of bottarga, fresh tuna roe used to be bouchy and not too watery or too dry with natural pleasant sea fragrance, never used if the smell too strong or even slight rotten fishy aromas. Choose the ripe fish roe is one where you can see the eggs in the sac they come in, and that they are uniform in color. The watery fish roe is normal, but will take longer time to cure. Unripe fish roe will not work, you must be able to see the eggs; if they are too small, do something else with the roe.
Now we making the homemade tuna fish roe Bottarga di Tonno. The tuna fish roe submerged in a 37 % salt saturated water solution overnight and then patted dry. The tuna fish sacs then individually coated with olive oil and let it sit for about few hours until the oil absorbed to prevent it dry once cured. The fish roe then coated with salt and then marinated for about 2-3 days depending on the size of the fish roe sac, the bigger sac needed more time. You may see some liqued dripping from the fish roe sac and some of the salt dissolved, hence you need to massaged the outside by hand to eliminate air pockets and add extra salt and to coated the cured fish roe. The result is firmer fish roe and it’s need to be air dry cured and let the time changing the salted raw tuna fish roe into Bottarga di Tonno
This is the salted and marinated fresh tuna fish egg roe for two days. The salted tuna fish roe sack then washed under running cold water, rubbed the sack a little bit to removed the excess salt and then patted dry with dry and clean pepper towel. The salted tuna fish roe much more firmer than than the raw sack.
This is the Bottarga di Tonno or salted and cured tuna fish roe after air dry cured for about fourteen days in my refrigerator. Bottarga should be firm but not rock hard, the salt should not over power the flavor of the bottarga, there should just be a hint of salt in it’s flavour and it should be gentle on the palate. The bottarga should not be dry but moist an creamy in flavour.
This is homemade Bottarga di Tonno or salted and air dried cured tuna fish roe finished product looked a like once i cut the sac it in half. There’s different color and texture of the bottarga, it’s depent on the ripeness of the roe inside of the sac before it’s salted an cured. The overly ripe tuna fish roe got bigger individual grainy egg and it’s crumbled easily once grated, just perfect for making pasta or fried rice. The sufficiently fully ripe fish turn into a very moist and creamy bottarga, just perfect to almost any bottarga recipe, but i prefer to served it raw without any heating or cooking process.
The salted tuna fish roe or Bottargo di Tonno is now ready to use in any kind of dish you want it to be. Bottarga is briny with a creamy buttery sweetness, smooth and slighly grainy in texture with a natural savoury sea flavour. If you love caviar, you probably loves bottarga and vice versa, but my friend who doesn’t love caviar lovin the bottarga once it cooked with pasta.
Here’s Few Ideas of How to Eat and Enjoy Bottarga:
1. Sliced or Grated Raw Bottarga

Thin Sliced Bottarga Flatbread with Kalamata Olives Puree, Sliced Red Shallots, Chili, Cherry Tomato, Fresh Micro Green Herbs (Mustard & Lemon Basil), Edible Black Mustard Blossom, Olive oil & Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
Raw thiny sliced or grated bottarga is used to be served as as an appetizer. The richness of bottarga with it’s naturl briny ts is a great option for appetier because the bold naked savoury flavour of bottarga is definitely tickle the taste buds. Bottarga also can be eaten with lemon juice on a piece of baquette, pizza, flatbread or any kind of bread which used as you serving anchovy. This is thinnly sliced Tuna Fish Bottarga di Tonno served as topping for Homemade Flat Bread or Tortilla with sliced raw shallots, chopped tomato, black olives puree, chopped chillies, micro greens and edible black mustard blossom. The flat bread tuna fish Bottarga di Tonno also drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
2. Bottarga with Pasta
Bottarga with pasta is the most common way to prepare the cured fish roe. The dried salted fish roe grated or finely chopped then sauteed with butter and other ingredients like garlic, chili and shallots until slighly bubbly and cooked. The best quality bottarga made of ripe fish roe will be crumbly well coated evely the pasta that lated added into it. The picture above is Bottarga Angel Hair Pasta aglio olio and served it with crayfish confit.
3. Bottarga with Rice
Bottarga with rice, now my Indonesian taste buds will be satisfied. The Nasi Goreng (fried rice) telur ikan asin or translated as salted fish roe fried rice is the best way to present the savoury sea flavour of it. The sauteed grated bottarga stir fried with the spicy spice paste and rice and other ingredients until the individual grain of rice is charred and coated well with the cured fish egg. Extra grated bottarga made it delicious even more. In Malaysia especialy in Serawak, the freshwater toli shad fish bottarga or telur ikan terubuk masin used to be steamed with rice and eaten as a morning booster.
Raw bottarga is got a pleasant sea briny flavour and the delicate sea aromas even stronger once it cooked. This afternoon i made dinner of Nasi Goreng or fried rice with grated bottarga and my grandma comes curiously to the kitchen by the aromas once i tossed the grated tuna bottarga with butter. The fried rice above is actually bold and very simple, but the spicy chili spice paste and the savoury grated Bottarga di Tonno made it very hearty and delicious, then i said myself this salt cured fish roe is worth all the time the efforts.
Recipe Bottarga di Tonno (Salt Cured Tuna Fish Roe)
Ingredients:
- whole fish roe or egg sacks (small eggs are best)
- salt
- 37% salt solution brine (10 grams salt per 1 litre of water)
- olive oil
How to Make Bottarga di Tonno (Salt Cured Tuna Fish Roe)
- Soak the tuna fish roe overnight in 37% saltwater solution .
- Remove from the solution and pat dry the tuna fish roe on paper towels.
- Coat the tuna fish roe with olive oil for about 2-3 hours
- Lay out fresh paper towel on a tray and liberally sprinkle with salt, place the roe on top and cover with more salt.
- Place this in the fridge and massage it to remove hte air pocket, replace the paper towels daily.
- After 2 or 2 days the tuna roes will have firmed up.
- Washed the tuna roe fish sac under running tab water to removed the excess salt, pat dry
- Hang or pleace the salted tuna roe in a rack and place it in a cool dry place (refrigerator) for 10–14 days (or longer, if desired).
- Remove the roe from its hanging place, wrap and refrigerate.
- Bottarga is best served freshly sliced or grated onto pasta.
Mouthwatering!
Ded, foto paling atas itu remah2nya ya?
bukan kak, tapi telur ikan tuna asin yang diparut
Eh ikan tuna juga ada telor nya yaa ??? ih daku baru tau lho
kalo gak bertelur gimana berkembang biaknya mas cumi, hehehe
This looks so cool! I saw something similar on a cooking show once! – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
This looks very tasty and I’m sure it’s perfect with fried rice!
Looks like tasty roe fish, Dedy. Quite a few yummy ways to eat it. The fried rice one looks very delicious and I would like to try that. But of course, I will not eat all of them at once! 😀
I am going to ask our local fisherman for some Tuna Fish Roe next time he gives us tuna 🙂
We can get the roe of the toli shad at the market here – very popular and of course, not cheap. We just fry and eat with porridge or rice. Interesting how you use the tuna roe – should be more or less the same thing.
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/how-bizarre/
Wow – this is a totally impressive thing to make! Nice work!
Love your Tuna Bottarga Appetizer with Flat Bread presentation, very upscale.
I enjoy seeing all of these recipes that are very unfamiliar to what I grew up eating.
There are some great recipe suggestions Dedy! Thank you! 😀
Being vegetarian I don’t know about tuna.. But looking at the dish I bet they taste grt
Totally a first for me, would be so curious to try.
how cool and creative you need a restaurant
it’s delicious… 🙂
Oh my! Looking succulent and delicious. What a decadent treat.
Fascinating! Unfamiliar of botargo…still fascinating. I think it will be fabulous to use in pasta or risotto.
Wow how amazing are you making your own Bottarga. I see the pictures of all your charcuterie….OMG you are incredible. Baotarga certainly is a delicasy and worth a lot of money
Sure enough its exotic food. Don’t know if I have tasted cured meat neither Tuna. But now after seeing the tranformation, I am tempted.
This sound really interesting !
What I love about you, Dedy, is that you have no fear – you make everything! I love bottarga but I am not sure I could find the egg sac. But, believe me, I am going to ask!
Would never have thought of making my own bottarga! Fun stuff — thanks.
Masterful presentation Dedy. I love it!
I think you must be a chef and not a dentist!
I can’t remember the last time I had fish in my kitchen…obviously too long ago! Love this!
OMG! My mom used to make this and I loved it…seeing yours made me want some…look fabulous Dedy!
Enjoy the rest of your week 🙂
I’m actually rather speechless. What an interesting food. I’ve had fresh roe and wasn’t much of a fan, but I’ve never had a salt cured food that I didn’t like. From the comments, it looks like a well-loved food.
You should try some, if you love caviar you’ll probably love botarga, but i suggest to try the cooked recipe first
this is so beautiful! i want to put it on everything!
Curing is something I want to try! Thanks for sharing this tuna with us Dedi!
I love karasumi & my Japanese guests would often buy them from Taiwan as gifts for me when I was still working as a PA/OM. Strangely, but they hardly sell these in Japan, that’s why the Japanese will get Karasumi from Taiwan instead. This is the first time I’m seeing a homemade version.
Nice recipe..too bad I don’t eat tuna 😦
Oh yes, I bet it makes a great pizza topping.
On the weekend I dined in a restaurant that cured all their own meats, eat was amazing and totally inspired me to go back to my roots and prepare all my own foods. This sounds amazing Dedy.
Hi, your method of making bottarga is interesting. I made my own using mullet roe but it still tastes very salty even though I used unbroken mullet roe sacs. I’m thinking of using potassium chloride (KCl) next time instead of salt (sodium chloride, NaCl). KCl is very expensive to use but I’m wondering whether it will lead to a less salty taste. The idea is to dehydrate the roe sac using an osmotic agent such as salt. Sugar syrup can cause osmotic dehydration in large concentrations to prevent bacterial growth. I wonder if you know if anyone has dehydrated roe sacs using sugar? regards James, Sydney, Australia jmoshide@ozemail.com.au
it’s caleed candied using sugar, you will easily burned it when you try to cook it, served it raw for dessert maybe
“37% salt solution brine (10 grams salt per 1 litre of water)”. I don’t understand. Looks more like a 0,99% solution (10/(1000+10)*100%) to me. Can you explain to me how you come to a 37% solution by these numbers?
If a saturated solution of salt is made it is around 29,01% in mass% (because you simply can’t dissolve more than 359 grams of NaCl in al litre of water).
If you put the roe in a 0,99% solution won’t it swell (due to the Cl- ions)?
And a saturated sollution would substract water indeed but would make the roe ineddible I recon.
So where am I going wrong in my thaughts?
Regards,
Roberto
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I too am curious about the 37% salt brine, that would mean 370g of salt per litre of water. I have seen recipes calling for 10g salt per litre and up to 100g salt per litre (10%). I imagine the reason for the brine is to draw out any blood, and not for salting purposes becuase it will then be dry salted over a matter of days.
Even if you could dissolve 370g of salt in a litre, there would be no need to subject the roe to that much salt water?
I wonder if anyone has actually tried the recipe using that amount of salt. It would be interesting to find out the results.