spaghetti al nero di sepia con calamari
black cuttlefish linguine with calamari in ink sauce
I think I first ate cuttlefish in ink in Venice about 30 years ago - when I returned to photograph a travel book for the Orient Express Company a few years later I must have had it a handful of times in different restaurants over the 3 weeks I was there. On polenta, bread and of course on pasta. And I’ve never forgotten any of those meals. So it was a bit daunting to try and come up with a version of my own, but here it is. You’re probably also thinking that this dish looks a little black to be featured in the Tomato chapter, but that’s because it’s made with a tomato base. The ink, in case you’re wondering, just adds another layer of fishiness to everything - if it wasn’t for the colour you’d think you were eating a really intensley fishy calamari sauce. Which you are.
If you buy frozen squid (I used a mix of frozen and fresh quid for this dish) you probably won’t get any ink sacks, but if you buy fresh you could ask your fishmonger to clean the squid but let you have the ink sacks. Far less fiddly is to buy cuttlefish ink in jars or sachets. If your fishmonger doesn’t stock this look online, and rememebr a littel goes a long, long way. Above all, don’t be scared. It’s delicious.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
prepare the ingredients
cook a basic tomato sauce
chop the cleaned cuttlefish or squid
cook the cuttlefish, then add to the tomato sauce
boil the pasta
add ink to sauce
combine the sauce and pasta
black cuttlefish linguine with calamari in ink sauce
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
approx 600g tomato polpa
800g fresh/frozen squid
cuttlefish ink
2 cloves garlic
white wine
cayenne pepper
PASTA
400g dry black ink spaghetti
MANTECATURA (?)
none
METHOD
Make a basic tomato sauce by frying some garlic in EVO then adding polpa, then allowing it to simmer and reduce. In another pan, again begin by cooking garlic gently in EVO (don’t let the garlic colour at all) and after a minute or so add the chopped up squid and a handful of parsley. Add a glass of white wine and then cover and cook on a low heat for at least 20-40 mins, checking regularly to see if things are drying out too much and adding water if necessary. At this point add the tomato sauce, check for salt and pepper, and cover and cook again for about 20-30 mins, again checking regularly in case it dries out too much.
Next boil and cook the pasta. When it reaches 'al dente' transfer to the Sauce Wok to combine with the sauce and finish cooking. For some reason this sauce often dries out very quickly so if you keep it ever so slightly runnier than you might normally cook a sauce, it will survive on the plate longer! Plate each portion with some fresh parsley and ground cayenne pepper.
NB I used black ink pasta when I cooked the recipe photographed on these pages. It adds a very slight extra level of fish taste to the dish, but if you can’t find any, normal dry linguini or spaghetti are fine. They’ll just look a little grey-ish on the plate - if you want a really deep, intense black, visually, you need to use the black ink pasta.
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: we're working on it!
Fat (g): TBC
Sat Fat (g): TBC
Carb (g): TBC
Sug (g): TBC
Fibre(g): TBC
Prot (g): TBC
Salt (g): TBC
