Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
purple sea urchin
We eat its gonads, and we call it coral so as not to think about it.
- Raw with a spoon, freshly opened
- The coral whipped into urchin butter
- Folded into soft scrambled eggs
- In French
- Oursin violet
- Scientific name
- Paracentrotus lividus
- In the water
- Benthic; from 0 to 90 m; rocks and seagrass of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, often lodged in a hollow it has bored out.
- Season & buying
- A regulated catch, usually open from November to April depending on the coastal area; pick one that feels heavy with spines still moving, for a firm, orange roe.
- Common length
- ~6 cm
- How to identify it
- A ball of short, dense spines
Purple, brown or olive with the bottom
Bores its own pocket into rock
On the plate
Briny, creamy and sweet, a concentrate of the sea that resembles nothing else.
Avoid: Gathering it out of season or in a protected zone: the Mediterranean stocks are collapsing.
Its mouth is called Aristotle's lantern, five teeth arranged in a meeting pyramid, which regrow continuously as they wear down on the rock.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
