Black spaghetti ( squid ink pasta) adds a a gourmet touch to this delicious shrimp pasta. It is a real delicacy cooked to a perfect al dente. Must try!

Pasta must be the most popular Italian dish all over the world, but not everyone knows about extravagant and delicious squid or cuttlefish ink pasta. Now it’s time for pasta lovers to explore something new and expand their knowledge and pasta menu with black spaghetti.

The first thing you should know is that, although the color may surprise you fresh squid ink pasta is just incredibly delicious, for real gourmets. And the secret is very simple - squid ink is mixed directly into the fresh pasta dough. Squid is black and gives pasta its amazing color, black or dark blue hue, and it infuses dough with a light hint of saltiness, enriching pasta with the odor of the sea and very mild fishy taste.

Black spaghetti is a perfect and elegant dinner of remarkable color and flavor, that preserves and celebrates the unique flavors of the sea and pairs perfectly with seafood.

It is very common recipe; the dish is served in almost every restaurant in the Italian coastal region. Originally it’s said to be from Sicily, and in every region of Italy, both South and North there are different variations of the recipe. The reason why it’s so popular is because cuttlefish were favorite and most affordable food for most fishermen families, and nothing went to waste when eating it, even the ink was used for pasta sauce.

Though, black spaghetti tastes good with any sauce or additives, the traditional and the most delicious way to cook it is with seafood. This black spaghetti recipe offers using shrimps.

The recipe may look fancy, but in fact, it’s very easy to make, you’ll have lusciously rich black pasta dinner at your table in about 30 minutes. It is possible to prepare black spaghetti at home, using fresh squid or cuttlefish and many may want to do that. But I offer to use ready-made cuttlefish ink pasta to save the time and to save your kitchen from the mess and ink stains!

When choosing shrimps for your pasta, don’t take the biggest you can find. In this case, the size matters and bigger is not better. A perfect match will be medium bite-size shrimps. You can buy peeled and deveined shrimps to save more time. In Italy, it’s quite common to leave the tails on the shrimp, but it’s preferable to remove them. And the last tip for buying shrimps – buy them in a shell and make sure they have sea smell and no fishy or sour odor.

BLACK SPAGHETTI RECIPE

Print Recipe

BLACK SPAGHETTI ( CUTTLEFISH INK PASTA)

Author: Chefjar

Ingredients

Black spaghetti- 300 gm
Unsalted butter- 2 tbsp
Shrimp peeled & deveined- 1 kg
Garlic cloves minced- 2
Fresh juice of 1 lemon
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese-2 tbsp
Peperoncino/ red pepper flakes- ¼ tsp
Cilantro finely chopped- ½ cup
Salt- to taste

Instructions

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Add salt ( to your taste). Add spaghetti and cook as per package instructions. Mmm spaghetti was done in 11 minutes.
In a small bowl combine the minced garlic with lemon juice. Pour over the shrimp to coat evenly. Allow to marinate 10 minutes.
In a large pan melt 2 tbsp of butter. Add the shrimp with marinade. Cook about 2 minutes per side or until the shrimp is done. Don't overcook or the shrimp will become rubbery.
Using a slotting spoon remove the shrimp from the liquid and transfer onto the plate. Bring the sauce to boil. Add Parmesan cheese and cook 1-2 minutes or until the sauce thickens a little bit.
Pour the sauce over the cooked and drained black spaghetti , add the shrimps, cilantro, peperoncino and toss to combine.
Viola!

Course: Pasta recipes/ Seafood

Cuisine: Italian