Tom Kitchin's seafood and squid ink spaghetti

Tom Kitchin

I should say from the very start that if you’re going to try cooking this recipe, make sure you have a good kitchen apron, or get yourself some chef’s whites – and be prepared to make a little bit of a mess. For me though, that’s all part of the fun; getting your hands dirty and working really close to the produce to achieve the best results. Squid ink is a fantastic ingredient in pasta, rice and bread. The deep, dark, intense colour can bring a dish to life and add an element of drama and theatre to your cooking. It also brings a lovely delicate, yet rich flavour to simple pasta or rice. It’s almost like an amazing stock that has a subtle hint of the sea. Squid isn’t the only cephalopod to produce ink – octopus and cuttlefish do so as well, but squid ink is the most widely used and can be identified by its blueish-black colour. At the restaurant, we harvest the ink ourselves. Squid is a delicious ingredient and we always make sure we use every single part of the produce that arrives in our kitchen. You get so much flavour by using every single part and the ink is no different. It’s quite a tricky process so, I recommend you ask your local fishmonger to supply you with some squid ink and also offer you a little advice on preparing it. I often use squid ink pastas when I’m cooking with seafood and shellfish as the two combined really take a dish back to nature and make a perfect flavour match, bringing out the wonderful tastes of the sea. It’s great in sauces too, combined with herbs or seaweed, or used to dress lovely fresh seafood simply. Riso al nero di seppia (squid ink risotto) and arroz negro (black rice) are the best known squid ink recipes. They’re both classic dishes from Italy and Spain and enjoyed widely there, where they make the most of the great local seafood and shellfish. You don’t need to stick to pasta or rice though. We make delicious squid ink and seaweed crispy rye breads which we serve as an appetiser to our guests at The Kitchin. It’s a good recipe to start with to try working with the ingredient and begin understanding how to balance both the colour and flavour to get the very best from it.

Ingredients

• For the spaghetti
• 500g pasta flour
• 5 whole eggs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp table salt
• 16g squid ink
• For the seafood
• 1 small bunch spring onions (finely sliced)
• 8 cod cheeks (or scallops, or white fish pieces such as cod or hake)
• 180g fresh picked white crab meat
• 180g fresh squid tubes, cut into triangles and scored
• 250g mussels
• 250g cockles
• 1 lime cut into wedges
• 1 tsp shallots
• 50ml dry white wine
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• coriander leaves
• For the chilli sauce
• 60ml white wine vinegar
• 50g sugar
• 15g garlic, chopped
• 15g red chilli, chopped
• 15g peanuts, crushed
• 10g coriander, chopped
• 10g salt
• 1 tsp olive oil

Serves: 4   Difficulty: Medium   Time to cook: 60 mins

Method

To prepare the spaghetti

Mix together all the pasta ingredients in a kitchen mixer using the dough hook, or by hand to create a soft, smooth pasta dough. Rest the dough in the fridge for at least an hour, or preferably overnight. Roll out the dough using a pasta machine to the desired thickness. Apply the spaghetti attachment and roll out the spaghetti. Blanch the spaghetti in boiling salted water for 2½ minutes, then refresh quickly in ice water and strain through a colander once cold. The cooked pasta can be used at once or stored in the fridge for up to two days. To serve, heat the spaghetti briefly in boiling water.

To prepare the seafood Heat a heavy-bottomed pan and add the teaspoon of vegetable oil. Cook the shallots for a few seconds, then add the mussels and cockles. Immediately pour in the wine, cover and leave to cook for about two minutes or until all the shells are open. Throw away any shells that do not open. Set aside to keep warm and strain. Pan fry the squid, and cod cheeks. Toss together the hot pasta with the crab meat, sliced spring onions, cod cheeks, mussels, cockles and squid just to heat everything through. Dress with the chilli sauce to taste (see below) and garnish with coriander leaves and lime wedges.

For the sweet chilli sauce Heat a frying pan. Add oil and sauté the garlic and chilli for 2-3 minutes, until the oil of the chilli starts to come out. Now add the vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt and reduce until the sauce thickens. Then add the chopped peanuts and coriander and serve.