Mains · By James
Squid Ink Pasta with Shrimp
Travelling in Mediterranean areas exposed our family to the exotic color and briny flavor of squid ink pasta dishes, and squid ink risotto. Jocelyn had one memorable experience in Catalonia with this dark pasta made with a squid ink sauce. It was so thoroughly black and beautiful, and her teeth were quite the sight; we laughed. I had wanted to make this pasta for years, since Sharon gifted me a pasta making attachment for our KitchenAid mixer. When I became aware in the spring of 2021 that squid ink was available online, the die was cast. This dish with shrimp, fresh tomato, and basil is a wonderful evocation of all things Mediterranean! It creates the full flavor profile (spicy, sweet, salty, savory, and sour), an amazing richness with a bright palate-cleansing acidity, compelling you to keep eating!
Ingredients
- Squid ink pasta — 4 servings (homemade, or store-bought if you live in a big city; directions for the homemade pasta are in the instructions). This dish is very good with regular pasta as well.
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic — crushed
- ~400 ml San Marzano canned tomatoes — chopped, with juice (the cans are usually 796 ml, so half the can is needed; any diced canned tomatoes will be great)
- 2 tbsp Mutti tomato paste
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 15 cherry or grape tomatoes (cut in half)
- ½ kg (500 g) shrimp, peeled and deveined (Costco has a wild Argentine shrimp like this — very good)
- 2 medium lemons (zested first, and then juiced)
- 4 tbsp butter — cut in small cubes
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp anchovy paste
- ¾–1 cup fresh basil — julienned
Method
- 1
Make your pasta, or buy it if you can find it. Get your big pot of salted water boiling.
- 2
Making your own squid-ink pasta: Combine 2 cups "00" pasta flour with 1 tsp salt in a stand mixer for about 20 seconds. In a separate bowl put 1 tbsp of squid ink, then add 4 egg yolks and 2 full eggs, and whisk to combine so the ink gets emulsified in the egg. Once the egg/ink is well combined, add it to the flour mixture and use a dough hook to bring the dough together. Then turn onto your counter and knead until smooth/elastic. Then form dough into a disk (about 2 cm thick) and cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or more (can leave overnight and use next morning).
- 3
Follow instructions for making spaghetti pasta using your pasta maker.
- 4
Before adding your pasta to the water, get your sauce ready, so the pasta can be added directly to the sauce.
- 5
For the sauce, add your olive oil and garlic to a large non-stick pan or wok, and simmer for a couple of minutes, until garlic is just starting to turn light brown.
- 6
Add your tomatoes and tomato paste, and heat through on medium heat for a few minutes, until reduced a bit.
- 7
Add the wine and chili flakes, and simmer several minutes more to reduce.
- 8
Add the halved cherry tomatoes. Then turn off heat, add the uncooked shrimp to the sauce and stir around until shrimp are all coated. Let sit while you start cooking the pasta. This marinating of the shrimp in the warm sauce allows the sauce flavors to penetrate before the shrimp are sealed off with full cooking.
- 9
Fresh pasta takes little time to cook — 4 minutes usually — which is the perfect time for marinating shrimp (if using dried pasta, start your pasta when you start the sauce).
- 10
When pasta is almost done, turn the sauce on to low-medium heat. Add the lemon juice and zested rind, the salt, and the cubes of butter.
- 11
The butter cubes "finish" the sauce. Stir as they slowly dissolve and emulsify to create a silky smoothness in the sauce, and rich flavor. This short cooking time (a couple of minutes) will finish the cooking of the shrimp (they need so little cooking time).
- 12
When pasta is ready to be drained, first scoop out a ¼ cup of the pasta water and add it to the sauce. Then, drain the pasta, and add to the sauce. Simmer for a minute more to marry the sauce and pasta (added starchy water helps this).
- 13
Serve immediately in bowls. Don't add parmesan cheese to this dish — it gets in the way of the brightness.
A note from James
Drink/wine pairing: a bright, acidic white — a sauvignon blanc, or better yet a more complex sauvignon blanc/semillon blend (a classic French white blend, but there are many new world examples as well).
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