Black Squid Ink Risotto With Grilled Calamari

Photo: Patricia Turo

Ingredients

1 cup Arborio rice

5 cups chicken broth or vegetable or fish stock broth

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (light flavor)

1 small white onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup good white wine

2 tablespoons sepia ink

Ground pepper

Salt as needed

Preparation

Put the stock and sepia ink in a pan and leave it low temperature to keep it warm.

Sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil in a sauce pan. When they are translucent, add the rice and allow the rice to become opaque in color stirring it for about 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Add the wine enough to cover the rice and stir. Cover the rice with broth until the rice has absorbed the liquid and then add more doing the same thing until the rice is al dente. The cooking should be about 20 minutes. Remove the risotto from the stove and stir in the butter until it has melted into the rice. This will create a nice creamy risotto. Add salt to taste.

Note: If you wish you can add some squid rings or chopped the tentacles at the very end and cook only a few minutes.

Grilled Squid

PREPARATION

Remove the tentacles, sac, beak, eyes and spine and wash any sand off the squid. Using a kitchen scissors cut the squid lengthwise. You can either cut it in quarters or in half lengthwise.

Make small incisions in both directions with a very sharp knife on the inside flesh of the squid. This will help to keep the squid flat instead of curing up.