Goth pasta

[triskellian]

One of the most memorable things smiorgan and I ate on our honeymoon in Venice was risotto nero, made with cuttlefish ink - which really did make the whole thing black - and ever since then I've vaguely been looking for somewhere to buy some and attempt the same thing at home.

A few weeks ago, I was having dinner in Carluccio's in Bicester, and the deli was still open after we'd finished eating, so we wandered around looking for yummy things to buy, and I found cuttlefish ink! My companion was rather baffled by my extreme excitement over a small and unassuming box, but last night's dinner (and today's lunch) proved that my excitement was entirely justified :-) smiorgan made black pasta*, and it was amazing - the sauce that had been bright tomato-red halfway through cooking was black by the time it reached our plates, and the flavour was... well, indescribable, really. Strong, and a bit fishy, but unlike anything else I've ever eaten, and absolutely delicious.

Eating my lunch today, I kept having to restrain myself from giggling at my black, tentacular food :-)

*Note that this icon is perfectly appropriate, because that recipe does indeed start with "fry an onion and some garlic".

Comments

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

Ah... arroz negro. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroz_negro
It does indeed have an interesting flavour. And i'm feeling nice so you get a link in English :-)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

DO WANT!

[thecesspit.livejournal.com]

Cthulhu would eat Black Pasta.

(I know have Arcade Fire's 'Black mirror' running through my head. Except the chorus is now Black Pasta. )

[sosoclever.livejournal.com]

(You do realize that when viewed on your journal, there is no icon, right? That's twice in the last week or so you've mentioned your icon, but I can only see it on my friends page.:-P)

It sounded interesting until you got to the fishy taste. Blech. sosoclever's don't like fishy.:-P

[sosoclever.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, the first time I think it referred to the icon you used in your comment. But still!

[triskellian]

I almost always use the same icons in comments as on the post.

But yeah, I know it doesn't display on my journal style. I keep meaning to poke around the style system and either work out how to turn it on, or find an alternative style I like which displays them. But I figure most people view on their friends page and/or with their own style (because I do; my sample size may be somewhat small).

[sosoclever.livejournal.com]

I read it on my friends page, but you can't "view in own style" unless you have a paid account (I think), so once I go to read comments, or add my own, your icon disappears.

I try to fit my icon to what I'm writing. I seem to be "defaulting" to "moose" far more than my actual default icon.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised it hasn't spread further due to the cool factor of black food.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

My Italian cookbook claims that you can buy squid with the ink sacks still in, and furthermore that even if the fishmonger does gut them, they'll still have the ink lying around out back. So you could try the covered market, see if the fish shop can sort you out.

I don't know whether squid ink and cuttlefish ink taste different, but they're the same colour.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

but they're the same colour

As is markerpen ink, but xylene and pasta don't play nicely together.

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I bought a little jar of black pasta sauce from Carluccio's and it was a bit grim, to be honest.

I am not sure if the ink by itself tastes better - I eat all manner of strangenessess in the fishie department, but this particular sauce really didn't do it for me. It just tasted rather *earthy* (in the way beetroot sometimes does). Maybe it's my subconcious refusing black grainy sauce as a legitimate choice...

[triskellian]

This didn't taste earthy to me at all, so the jar sauce is probably different. Ours was two tiny sachets of thick liquid ink, stirred into a very simple tomato sauce, and I really recommend it if you want to give ink another shot.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

That sounds cool - but it presses all the wrong buttons for me. I wish I was less squeamish about some things, because I like exciting new foods. I'm happy for you, though. :D

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Heh, I thought the actual pasta was going to be black, not the sauce. But I guess hand-making pasta might be a bit much for a school night.