I have been challenged with an ingredient. Back in the summer my friend Jamie (who has since moved to Toronto 🙁 ) challenged me to make a meal using horseradish. I put together 5 or 6 dishes, including a dessert – a horseradish cheesecake, and served all our friends. Once again Jamie has challenged me with an ingredient.
This time Jamie challenged me with a jar of cuttlefish ink. Cuttlefish is very similar to squid. Their ink is a bit salty with a slight taste of the sea.
I have decided to showcase this ingredient over the next couple of weeks. First up I decided to make ink pasta carbonara.
I made the pasta using my Philips pasta maker.
I used flour, egg, cuttlefish ink and water and waited for the pasta maker to spew out playdoh, I mean pasta!
I lightly floured the pasta (to keep it from sticking).

I set of pot of water to boil and I placed diced pancetta a skillet over medium heat with a little bit of water. I reduced to low when the pancetta started to brown.

Once the water was boiling I placed my pasta in it for a few minutes before draining, reserving ¼ cup of water. I then added minced garlic and red pepper flakes to the pancetta, cooking for one minute.
I added the reserved pasta water to the skillet, scraping the bottom on the skillet with a wooden spoon. I added the pasta and 2 beaten eggs to the skillet.
I then tossed and tossed while the egg cooked for a minute or two.
I removed from heat, tossed in chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Then served topped with shaved hard cheese. (For the shaved cheese I literally took my vegetable peeler and shaved off from a block of hard cheese, worked great!)
How did it taste: Really different, in an exciting good way. The “sea” taste from the pasta paired with the rendered pancetta and slight spicy kick from the red pepper flakes – pure yumminess! This was an exciting dinner. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out what else I have come up with for this challenge!
- 1 recipe for cuttlefish ink pasta, below
- ¼ cup pancetta, diced
- 1 TB water
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 TB parsley, chopped
- Shaved hard cheese, such as parmesan for serving
- Heat a pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook stirring occasionally to keep from sticking for 3-4 minutes until the pasta is cooked. Drain reserving ¼ cup of the pasta water.
- Meanwhile heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta and 1 TB of water. Cook and stir occasionally for 4 minutes. Reduce to low heat and continue to cook and stir occasionally until the pasta has been drained.
- Add garlic and red pepper flakes to the pancetta. Stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Add reserved pasta water to the skillet. Scrape the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon. Then add pasta and egg. Toss continually for 1-2 minutes until the egg is cooked.
- Remove from heat and toss in parsley. Season with salt and pepper and served topped with shaved hard cheese.
- serves 2
- 250 g flour
- 1 egg
- 3 tsp cuttlefish ink
- water
- Place flour into the Philips Pasta Maker with linguine noodle attachment. Close the lid of pasta maker.
- Place egg, cuttlefish ink and water up to 95 ml in a small container. Whisk together.
- Turn on pasta maker for 1 cup setting. Slowly pour liquid mixture into the hole in the lid.
- As the pasta comes out of the maker lightly flour and cut into 8 inch lengths.
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