Squid Risotto Recipes

RISOTTO NERO WITH SQUID

Steps:

• Put olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add half the diced onion and cook, stirring, until softened and barely colored, about 5 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper, then add garlic, saffron and red pepper and cook for 1 minute more.
• Add squid bodies and tentacles, stir well to coat and season with salt. Add tomato, bay leaf and 1/4 cup white wine. Add 1 cup water and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, then stir in squid ink. Simmer for 10 minutes more, until squid is tender. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.
• Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add remaining onion, season with salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add rice, stir to coat, and cook for 2 minutes more.
• Keeping heat brisk, add remaining 1/4 cup wine and 2 cups of the broth and simmer, stirring, until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add another cup broth and cook for 5 minutes, stirring. Add the last cup of broth and all of the squid mixture. Cook, stirring, for 5 to 7 minutes more, until rice is just done. Taste and adjust seasoning.
• Add a little more broth, as necessary, to keep rice moist and loose, but not too soupy. Stir in lemon zest and parsley, then spoon into warm shallow soup bowls. Drizzle with a little olive oil and serve immediately.

SQUID INK RISOTTO

Steps:

• Coat a large saucepan generously with olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and salt and sweat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Bring the pan to a medium-high heat. Add the rice and cook, letting the rice slightly stick to the bottom of the pan and scraping it off, until it sounds crackly, 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add the wine to the pan until it covers the surface of the rice. Season with salt and cook over medium-high heat, stirring continuously, until the wine has absorbed into the rice. Add the chicken stock to the pan until it covers the rice, about 4 minutes. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring continuously, until the stock has absorbed into the rice, about 6 minutes.
• Repeat this process two more times with the hot chicken stock. When the third addition of the stock has absorbed and the rice is very creamy, bite a couple grains of rice to test how it is cooked. Add the squid ink and mix to incorporate. If the rice is still a little crunchy, add a little more stock and cook the rice for another couple of minutes. Add the calamari and allow to cook until tender and the rice is creamy but still flows and holds its own shape, 5 to 7 minutes. When the rice is cooked perfectly, remove it from the heat.
• Toss in the butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano and fold to combine. Garnish with chives or micro bull's blood if using, and a big glug of good extra-virgin olive oil.

SQUID RISOTTO

Steps:

• Pat squid dry, then cut bodies lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips and quarter tentacles lengthwise. Season with salt and pepper.
• Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook oregano, rosemary, red pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon garlic, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add squid strips and tentacles and sauté, stirring constantly, until opaque and curled, about 1 minute. (Do not overcook, or squid will toughen.) Transfer to a sieve set over a bowl to catch juices squid releases.
• Combine squid juices from bowl with fish stock in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and keep at a bare simmer.
• Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in a large heavy saucepan over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook remaining garlic, stirring frequently, until pale golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in rice and cook, stirring constantly, until rice is translucent, 4 to 5 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring constantly, until absorbed. Stir in 1 cup simmering broth mixture and cook at a strong simmer, stirring frequently, until broth is absorbed. Continue cooking at a strong simmer and adding broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently and letting each addition be absorbed before adding the next, until rice is tender but still al dente and creamy looking, 18 to 20 minutes total. (There may be broth left over.)
• Stir in squid and parsley and cook just until heated through, about 1 minute. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

SQUINK RISOTTO

Steps:

• I have said that I usually use white wine or dry white Vermouth in a risotto, but I must concede that the recipes here don't appear to bear this out. I've got an excuse with this one, too: the whole point of this risotto is that it's black, tinted by the squid ink (the squink of my title) and I had no desire to lessen its impact with some pallid white wine. But it's not just a question of colour: the squid ink is so richly, headily flavored that nothing less than a robust red would stand up to it.
• As strange as it might sound for so exotic a dish, this may even pass muster as a storecupboard standby. The rice, the broth and the squid ink (it comes in sachets, from a good fishmonger or Italian deli, or online source) can be kept easily. I have marked the squid-ring topping as optional, but even that can live in the freezer for a few months.
• While I am more than happy to eat it plain black, I can't help feeling cheered by the jaunty tricolore adornment provided by the squid rings, red chile pepper and parsley. Not that I'm being cheered is altogether the point of such a beautiful, sombre dish, the perfect date meal for Goths.
• Cut the squid (if using) into thin rings and set aside while you get on with the risotto.
• Heat the broth until almost boiling, and keep the broth warm in a saucepan on the lowest heat
• Warm the 2 tablespoons oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan and soften the sliced scallions for 2 minutes on a low heat. Keep stirring and don't let them burn. Grate in the garlic and turn up the heat. Toss in the rice and turn it in the oil and so it is slicked and shiny. Pour in the red wine and let it bubble up over the rice.
• Wearing disposable vinyl gloves, snip in the squid ink and carefully dunk the squeezed out sachets into the separate pan of hot broth to get out any remaining ink. Then add and keep adding ladlefuls of hot broth to the rice, letting one ladleful be absorbed before adding the next, stirring all the while.
• When the rice has had 15 minutes, you can be less assiduous on the stirring front and get on with the squid, if you're using this. In a frying pan, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil and the chile, until sizzling, then add the squid rings and cook, stirring or shaking the pan a little, for 3 minutes. Season with ground pepper, to taste.
• By this time, the black risotto should be ready, so divide it between warmed shallow bowls or plates, top with chile and squid, if using, and scatter with parsley.

''RISOTTO'' WITH SQUID, SHRIMP, AND CURRY LEAVES

Steps:

• Place squid bodies on a baking sheet; transfer to freezer and freeze for 1 hour. Transfer tentacles to refrigerator until ready to use.
• Meanwhile, place cauliflower in a medium-heavy-bottomed saucepan and add milk; season with salt and pepper. Cover with a parchment paper round to keep cauliflower submerged. Place saucepan over low heat and cook until tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Drain cauliflower, reserving milk, and transfer to jar of a blender. Blend until smooth, adding some of the milk as necessary to puree. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
• Fill a large heavy-bottomed saucepan 1-inch high with vegetable oil; heat over medium-high heat until it reaches 350 degrees on a deep-fry thermometer. Add curry leaves and cook until they stop popping, 10 to 20 seconds. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
• Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat. Add shrimp and cook, turning, until opaque, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from skillet, set aside and keep warm. Add remaining tablespoon olive oil to skillet and add reserved squid tentacles; cook, turning, until opaque, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.
• Remove squid bodies from freezer and cut into 1/4-inch pieces. Add 3 tablespoons butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat. When butter is melted and foamy, add cut squid, 5 heaping tablespoons cauliflower puree (reserve any remaining for another use), and leeks; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until squid becomes opaque, 2 to 3 minutes. Add remaining tablespoon butter and cook, stirring, until melted; season with salt and pepper.
• Divide squid mixture evenly between six serving bowls. Divide shrimp and curry leaves evenly between the bowls. Using an immersion blender, blend shrimp broth until frothy; spoon broth into each bowl. Garnish with squid tentacles and serve immediately.

RISOTTO WITH SQUID INK AND RICOTTA

Steps:

• Heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon oil in heavy pan and sauté onions for about 2 minutes over medium-high heat.
• Stir in rice and continue cooking 3 or 4 minutes until rice absorbs some oil. Stir in ink and continue stirring to mix well, about a minute. Add tomato paste and wine and cook over high heat to reduce by about half.
• Add 2 cups of stock and cook quickly over medium-high heat, stirring often. When most of liquid has evaporated, add another two cups of stock and repeat, seasoning with salt, pepper and hot pepper flakes, to taste. If rice is not yet tender, add another cup and repeat. Two minutes before the rice is ready, stir in the cuttlefish.
• Mix ricotta with half of milk and extra virgin olive oil to make it easily spreadable; add more milk as needed (this step can be done while stock is reducing).
• Spoon rice mixture into a round or oval casserole and spread the ricotta mixture evenly over the top. Bake for about 10 minutes. If cheese does not brown, run under broiler for about 2 minutes.