Squid Ink Restaurant, Looe, Cornwall

Ingedients

Basic Pasta Dough (makes 450g)
400g ‘00’ flour (tipo ‘00’ pasta flour is best)
2 x eggs
1 x large or 2 x small squid to make 100ml diluted squid/cuttlefish ink (if you’re using fresh squid the ink sack is found in the bottom of the body cavity but you can also buy bottles of ink from deli’s). NB dilute the ink with water to make up to 100ml.

Tapenade (there’s no set recipe we use for this so you can adjust the quantities to suit your taste)
Black olives
Sundried tomatoes in olive oil
Capers
Flat leaf parsley
Anchovy fillets
Olive oil

Fish
4 x fillets of Cornish sea bream (or other fish/shellfish of your choice)

How to cook

1. Make the tapenade by chopping all the ingredients finely and mixing to a paste with olive oil.
2. Make the pasta by piling the flour into a volcano shaped mound on a spacious work surface.
3. Break the eggs into the centre and add some salt and add the squid ink
4. Stir the eggs and ink into the flour. Using a fork at first and then your hands, until it forms a coarse paste. Add a little more flour if the mixture feels too moist.
5. Feed the pasta dough through a pasta machine (or hand roll) for approx 15 mins until the dough is soft and elastic.
6. Rest the dough for 15 - 30 mins before rolling and cutting into shapes.
7. Roll the dough to a sheet 2mm thick and leave to firm up on a clean tea towel for half an hour
8. Roll the sheet up into a loose roll and cut into ribbons of the desired width and allow to dry for a further 15 mins before cooking.
9. Cook in a large saucepan of boiling water with 1 tsp of salt stirring occasionally to prevent sticking for 3-5 mins until al dente.
10. While the pasta is cooking pan fry the fish in a non stick pan until the skin is crisp.
11. Drain the pasta and serve immediately topped with pan fried fish and a spoonful of tapenade