Squid ink spaghetti with shrimps and cherry tomatoes

Spaghetti Nerro di Seppia con Gamberi e Pomodorini

In this recipe I use as you see spaghetti with little twist. Squid ink!..it is just what it sounds like the ink from squids which adds both a sea tag and a lovely black glow to pasta. You can cook it yourself by asking your fishmonger to give you some really fresh squids from which you extract the ink bags. I won`t go through this preparation now as in my recipe  I used ready made black ink pasta. 

Ingredients:

300 gr fresh shrimps

2 small fresh squids

2 cloves garlic 

1/2 glass of white wine

300 gr cherry tomatoes

salt&pepper

dried Chilli flakes 

extra virgin Olive Oil 

Preparation:

Step1:- start by peeling the shrimps as in Figure 1&2&3- peeling just the tail and leaving the head on. This add more flavor to the sauce and I think that it looks better.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

-clean the squid as in Figure 4:

•   Grab the squid tail in one hand and the head in the other.

Figure 4

•  firmly pull apart maybe with a slight twisting motion 
• the head and the innards should easily slip out
• the tentacles and the body tube are edible 
• cut the head above the eyes and discard the innards 

! One thing that I forgot to tell you, actually the ink sac is located in the innards. It looks like a black vein and it is easy to remove with your fingernail. 

• now back to the squid tube you will see that is covered in a super thin layer of  a spotty skin. Although it is edible, I suggest to peel it off as the result will look better. Inside the squid tube you can also see a thin, clear sliver of cartilage like a super thin shard of glass (as you can see in Figure 5) ! It is inedible and must be removed . Simply grab the cartilage with your fingers and pull it from the squid body. It should release fairly easy.

Figure 5

Step 2:- start cooking the pasta in salty boiling water. If the instruction on the package says 10 min, cook it for 9 min, 1 min less to achieve proper al dente pasta.(Figure 6)

Figure 6

Step3:-in a hot large pan, drizzle some olive oil and put the crushed, chopped garlic and a pinch of chilli flakes. Fry gently for couple of minutes and add the squid rings

-continue to fry over medium heat now for another 2 minutes 

-add the shrimps. When they start to turn pink add the wine and let to evaporate the alcohol (Figure 7)

Figure 7

-once you did that, add the cherry tomatoes and stir

-let everything cook for 5 min, time in which your pasta should be al dente

Figure 9

Figure 8

Step4:-drain the pasta and transfer to the pan (Figure 8&9)

-toss everything to coat pasta in the sauce and add little chopped parsley or few leaves of basil (Fig 10)

Figure 10

Figure 11- Just for fun, kids!

Serve hot! NO Parmesan :)))