Homemade Squid Ink Pasta with Black Garlic Butter Sauce

Experience the unique flavor and visual appeal of homemade squid ink pasta paired with an umami-heavy black garlic butter sauce. This Italian-inspired dish, served with a side of fragrant garlic bread, provides a delightful fusion of flavors and is fun to make.

If you can’t find squid ink and want to make a colorful pasta, substitute the squid ink in the recipe with ½ cup of blanched, drained spinach (with all the extra water squeezed out of the spinach before being mixed with the eggs in a food processor). The blended spinach & egg mixture is then mixed with the flour and kneaded to create spinach pasta.

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Homemade Squid Ink Pasta with Black Garlic Butter Sauce

Experience the unique flavor and visual appeal of homemade squid ink pasta paired with an umami-heavy black garlic butter sauce. This Italian-inspired dish, served with a side of fragrant garlic bread, provides a delightful fusion of flavors and is fun to make.

If you can’t find squid ink and want to make a colorful pasta, substitute the squid ink in the recipe with ½ cup of blanched, drained spinach (with all the extra water squeezed out of the spinach before being mixed with the eggs in a food processor). The blended spinach & egg mixture is then mixed with the flour and kneaded to create spinach pasta.

Ingredients

• 2 cups '00' flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp squid ink
• ¼ tsp Kosher salt
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 5 cloves black garlic (finely minced)
• 6 Tbsp (¾ stick) unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper (to taste)
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese (finely grated for serving)
• 1 French baguette (cut into slices)
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) salted butter (softened)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp fresh parsley (finely chopped)

Instructions 

• Start by making the squid ink pasta.
• Mound the ‘00’ flour on a clean surface and create a well or indentation in the center.
• Crack the eggs into the well, and add the squid ink and a pinch of salt and the olive oil.
• Using a fork, carefully and gradually mix the flour into the egg and squid ink until a dough forms.
• *If you are not careful here, your eggs will spill out onto the table as your try to mix them with the flour—try to incorporate them slowly and keep them contained within the well or indentation that you made in the flour. You can also use a bowl here, if you prefer.
• Once the dough comes together into a ball, proceed to knead the dough on your work surface until it's smooth and elastic, about 15 minutes.
• *You should be sweating a bit here—consider this a free workout!
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for roughly 30 minutes.
• Once rested, roll out the dough with a pasta machine or a rolling pin to your desired thickness.
• Cut into your desired pasta shape, dust with a little flour, and set the fresh pasta aside for later.
• *You can hang your cut pasta on (clean) metal or wooden clothes hangers, so the strands of pasta dusted with flour are less likely to stick together.
• For the black garlic butter sauce, melt butter with olive oil in a pan over medium heat.
• Add minced black garlic, Kosher salt, and freshly-ground black pepper.
• Stir until the garlic is well incorporated into the butter.
• Remove the sauce from the heat, and keep warm.
• Meanwhile, prepare the garlic bread.
• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Slice the baguette diagonally, without cutting all the way through to the bottom.
• Mix the softened butter, minced garlic, and chopped parsley in a small bowl.
• Spread the garlic butter mixture between the baguette slices.
• Wrap the baguette in aluminum foil, and bake for 10 minutes.
• Remove the aluminum foil, and bake for another 5 minutes on a sheet tray until the edges are crispy.
• *The sheet tray is just to avoid any butter from dripping down into your oven.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
• Cook the squid ink pasta until al dente, or roughly 2 minutes.
• Drain the pasta, reserving ¼ cup of the pasta water.
• Add the cooked pasta back to the pan with the black garlic butter sauce.
• Toss well, adding pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce.
• Serve the squid ink pasta hot, topped with grated Parmesan and more fresh parsley, if desired.
• Serve the crispy garlic bread on the side.

Notes

‘00’ flour is a very finely-ground wheat flour that is often used in pasta and pizza dough making. You can use all-purpose flour for the pasta if you are unable to find ‘00’ flour, but you will notice a difference in the final texture of the pasta dough and the cooked pasta.

Black garlic is a type of aged garlic with a uniquely sweet and umami-rich flavor, which complements the subtle seafood taste of the squid ink pasta. If unavailable, roasted regular garlic can be substituted. This pasta dish pairs wonderfully with a crisp white wine.

I have tried making “black garlic” pasta before, with the black garlic blended with eggs and then mixed with flour…the pasta comes out somewhat light brown in color, and isn’t very appealing to look at.

I would recommend buying the squid ink for this recipe, instead of trying to harvest it from actual squid. Unless the squid you are breaking down are large in size, you will have a hard time getting enough ink, as the smaller squid typically contain a very small quantity of the ink. You can find ink at some specialty grocery stores, often kept in the freezer section.