Squid Ink Tagliolini

Found these black strings of pasta in a little shop in town the other day, and I just had to snap it up. Had no idea at the time what I would do with it, as I've never had it before. Searched a bit on the internet, but, though I saw some interesting recipes, nothing really grabbed me. 


So I decided to wing it and hope for the best. This is what I came up with and it tasted pretty damn good, if I do say so myself (although I have to admit, the pasta didn't really taste any different to normal pasta!)

Squid Ink Tagliolini

serves 2

good handful squid ink tagliolini
approx 2 large handfuls sundried tomatoes, marinated in oil or soaked in hot water for a few minutes
125 ml cream
1/4 cup dry white wine (I used a chenin blanc)
1 tin smoked mussels
1 tin smoked oysters
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
handful fresh basil leaves, chopped

1. Cook the tagliolini in plenty of salted boiling water. I added the drained oil from the tin of mussels, which seemed to add nicely to the flavour.
2. Put the sundried tomatoes in a food processor and blend until smooth. Spoon into a saucepan and warm up, adding the cream. Stir until well combined, add the wine and cook for about 5 minutes or so to give the flavours a chance to blend. Add the drained mussels, oysters and black pepper.
3. When the pasta is done, drain and drizzle with some olive oil.
4. Divide the pasta into individual bowls, spoon over the sauce and sprinkle over some chopped basil.

Nutritional info (per serving): Calories 794.4 Total Fat 18.4 g Saturated Fat 7.9 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.5 g Cholesterol 82.4 mg Sodium 940.0 mg Potassium 196.8 mg Total Carbohydrate 115.6 g Dietary Fiber 2.9 g Sugars 17.0 g Protein 36.7 g