Sea Fregola Sottosopra

Sea Fregola Sottosopra by our chef Alessio Sebastiani brings one of the most intense sides of seafood cuisine to the plate. The artisanal fregola stays at the centre, creamy and textured, able to hold the flavour of the sea without losing its bite. Around it come fasolari clams, langoustines, razor clams, clams, cuttlefish, bottarga and cacciucco, in a full, warm and deep combination. It is not a dish built on false delicacy: it has character, aroma and a strength you feel from the first taste.

The fregola works like a living base: it absorbs, binds and gives flavour back. Each grain remains present, but becomes part of an enveloping creaminess, almost like a seafood risotto, with a more rustic Mediterranean note. The cacciucco brings depth and colour, with that orange, intense and savoury part clearly visible in the plate. It is not just a sauce, but the base that holds everything together: the sea, the toasted fregola, the softness of the shellfish and the savoury edge of the bottarga.

Fasolari clams, langoustines, razor clams, clams and cuttlefish are not there as decoration, but to build the bite. There is a fleshier side, a sweeter one, a more savoury one, and a slightly elastic texture. The bottarga adds a sharper marine push, while the small green touches and coloured petals lighten the view without taking strength away from the dish. Looking at the photo, it is clear that this is a rich fregola, but not a confused one: every element remains readable, even inside a very full flavour.

The name Sottosopra works because this fregola seems to move the sea inside the plate: the creamy part underneath, the cacciucco wrapping everything, the seafood emerging, the bottarga closing with savouriness. The result is an intense, generous, Mediterranean bite, where the artisanal fregola takes in all the flavour of fasolari clams, langoustines, razor clams, clams and cuttlefish. It is a dish for those who want the sea when it is rich, warm, deep and without half measures.