Ink is the new....Whole Wheat?

So I love squid ink EVERYTHING. Especially when octopus is cooked in its own ink like they do in Spain/Portugal/some South American countries. At Eataly, in NYC, they have a fresh pasta bar with squid ink linguine. Not the most popular (I may be the only one who ever purchases it), but man oh man is it good. It imparts a wonderful smokey earthy briney quality to whatever you serve it with (or in).

I took the clam pasta recipe that I did for my Thanksgiving dinner (white wine, baked clam jus, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, lemon rind, reduced and tossed with pasta, served with baked clams and parsley) but served it with the fresh squid ink linguine instead of a traditional pasta. With fresh pasta, you only want to cook it for 60 seconds in salted boiling water. Don't put olive oil in your boiling water...you don't do any harm, but there is no point and you end up wasting your olive oil. An Italian cook once told me, "Americans don't have patience...they put oil in their pasta water so they can multitask....DO YOU NOT HAVE 5 MINUTES TO SIT AND STIR!?! IT'S YOUR DINNER." So....yeah what he said.

The high acid, citric sauce with the lovely clammy brine paired BRILLIANTLY with the smokey squid ink linguine. The texture of fresh pasta (when cooked right) is so much better than dried. 

Paired it with a Gavi di Gavi, very cheap, clean, minerally Italian white wine. I would even go as far to pair it with a good, grassy Sancerre to pair with the earthy, organic squid ink flavors (although it is smokey, its more organic tasting than "smoked").

Until next time, spend some time with squidword ;)