Mentaiko is a Japanese delicacy which you can apparently buy in the frozen section of your closest Asian supermarket. I grew up in Japan and love it and L. and I got lucky this week: a friend from Tokyo brought us some top-notch, just cured lobes of this delicious, slightly spicy fish roe delicacy.
This is sort of a "non-recipe" recipe for 2 people rather than my usual 4. You just bung ingredients together rather than measure them out, my preferred method of cooking anyway. While mentaiko might seem like quite an esoteric or off-putting ingredient, I would highly recommend getting some: the end result of making this is a luxurious pasta with a gorgeous, creamy sauce and delightfully briny - not fishy - undertones. This would be a great first course for an upscale dinner party though, L. and I being greedy, we scarfed this down for a dinner-on-one's-knee-in-front-of-a-movie night.
All you have to do is boil up some salted water, cook the best quality fresh linguine you can get your hands on for 2 people for 1 minute less than the package directions, drain it once cooked al dente (reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta water).
Put the empty pasta pan back on the hob and measure in 1/3 cup of cream, the juice of one lemon and the reserved pasta water. Cook this until it has thickened and is bubbling away nicely.
Lower the heat and add the pasta back to the pan. Stir well to combine, making sure that each strand of pasta is coated with the cream. Let cook, stirring to coat the pasta for about 30 seconds more. Once the water has boiled, since this is a fresh pasta dish, you can bring this in in under 5 minutes. (4:12 to be exact).
You will need one lobe of roe per person for a truly sybaritic experience. Remove the pan from the heat. Slit open the roe sac and scrape all the briny deliciousness into the pasta. Stir well to combine, quickly check for salt (you won't need much if any), portion out and eat at once.
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