Fusilli with Squid and Saffron Sauce

Name: Fusilli with Squid and Saffron Sauce (Fusilli con Ragù di Calamari e Zafferano)
Yield: Serves 6 as a first course
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon tomato paste (purée); 1 tablespoon finely sliced basil leaves; ⅓ cup (80 ml) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling; ½ teaspoon dried Greek oregano; 2 tablespoons Vermentino or other dry white wine; 1 tablespoon salted baby capers, rinsed and dried; fine sea salt, for pasta water; 6 squid, cleaned and skinned; 500 g fusilli; 20 Ligurian olives, pitted; salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 1 stalk celery heart, finely diced; ¼ teaspoon saffron threads; 125 g canned peeled tomatoes, drained and lightly squashed; 2 golden shallots, finely diced

Fusilli con Ragù di Calamari e Zafferano

Preparation info

Serves
6
as a first course

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Sardinian Cookbook

By Giovanni Pilu and Roberta Muir

Published 2012

About

It’s easy enough to make fresh pasta, but every Sardinian household has packets of dried pasta in the cupboard as a stand-by for quick meals. When I was a kid, we went to school six days a week, but finished just after 1 p.m., then we’d all race home for a late lunch. Pasta is my brother Cristiano’s favourite food, and Mum would often have a dish of dried pasta with a simple sauce on the table waiting for us after school.

Seafood ragùs like this are popular all over the Italian coas