An Italian classic, a dish that will carry you at the beautiful coasts of Campania, Calabria, Puglia e Sicilia
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 6 € pp)
- Salt
- 500 g fresh pasta with half portion of eggs
- ink sacs from 2 cuttlefish
- tentacles from 2 cuttlefish
- 800 ml fish stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 medium onion in dice
- 1 large carrot in dice
- 1 pepperoncino in small pieces
- the solid parts of 500 g fresh peeled tomatoes
- EV olive oil
- fresh parsley
If you wanna pass your time like a Sir, a King or a Prince, just go to the southern Italy. You will eat better than anywhere else, you will sleep at unique hotels and you will meet the most beautiful women in the world. In the southern part of Italy there are hundreds of Gina Lolobrigitas, hundreds of Monica Bellucis etc.
Sophia Loren is unique, Sophia was made by God and not by humans.
Anyway, ink pasta is the queen of fresh pasta. It has a fantastic sea look and taste and gives a magnificent background for the coloured parts of the dish. Fresh ink pasta is usually made with half portion of eggs, as we have learned here. We prepare the “sfoglia”, thin as we have learnt and we cut the pasta in tagliatelle with the pasta machine. We keep aside.
Meanwhile we heat the fish (or seafood) stock and we add the bay leaf and the tentacles of two medium cuttlefish, cut lengthwise. We leave them till completely tender, about 45 to 60 minutes. Always using high heat we add the carrot, cut in dice, we remove it when it is mediumly soft and we add the onions for a few minutes, till tender. We remove them and we add the tomatoes (with a cross on its surface) for a minute, in order to peel them. We transfer the tomatoes in a pot with cold water and we reduce the stock to about 200 ml.
We preheat very well a pan, we add some olive oil and we brown the tentacles. We remove them and we add carrot and onion for only 1 minute, we just want them to be browned too. We remove them, we add a little bit olive oil, the pepperoncino and the peeled tomatoes, cut in small pieces.
Meanwhile, in a big pot with salted water we boil the tagliatelle for about 1-2 minutes. We transfer them in the pan with the tomatoes, we add carrot and onion, the reduced stock, salt and maybe some more olive oil. We continue cooking the pasta in the sauce till al dente point and moving continuously the pan in order to bind the sauce.
We put in plates, we add the cuttlefish tentacles and chopped parsley and we serve.
