Name: Risotto nero
Yield: Serves 4 as a starter
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: ½ glass of white wine; 100 g cleaned squid; 20 g squid ink (2-3 sachets); ½ tsp fennel seeds; 200 g risotto rice (e.g. carnaroli); 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; sprig of thyme; 10 black peppercorns; 25 g (3 sachets) squid ink; 1 bay leaf; 60 g butter; good knob of butter; 1 tbsp chopped parsley; 1 onion, roughly chopped; 1 leek, roughly chopped and well rinsed; 2 garlic cloves, chopped; 1 kg fish bones, rinsed and chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4
as a starter

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Fish etc.

By Mark Hix

Published 2004

About

My first experience of rice black with squid ink was the arroz negro I enjoyed in Spain fourteen years ago. I had known about it and Italian risotto nero, but had never experienced either, as few London restaurants served them at that time. The version I had was sort of grey, but had a delicate flavour of the sea. Back in London, tiny sachets of squid ink were the only thing imported then. We would cut these open and boil them in the stock to get the most out of them.