CookEat Recipe
Florentine Black Cuttlefish Risotto
A dark ink-coloured risotto with small cuttlefish pieces and cooked chard, served fairly dry with Parmesan on the side.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 600 g whole cuttlefish before cleaning, with their ink sacs reserved by the fishmonger; 600 g risotto rice; About 600 g chard, washed and trimmed of its thickest stalks; 1 medium onion; 2 garlic cloves; 5 tablespoons olive oil; About 1.75 litres hot water, with more as needed; Salt to taste; Grated Parmesan to offer separately.
Step 2
Have the fishmonger clean the cuttlefish and reserve the food-grade ink sacs. Remove skin, cuttlebone, beak, eyes and digestive organs. Cut the body into small squares and the tentacles into short pieces. Keep the ink cold until needed. Chop the onion and garlic finely and chop the trimmed chard coarsely.
Step 3
Cook the onion and garlic in the olive oil until lightly golden. Add the cuttlefish and cook until it becomes opaque and begins to take on a pale golden colour. Add the chard, stir well and simmer together for about 30 minutes, adding a splash of water if needed. Check that the cuttlefish is cooked through to 74°C and becoming tender.
Step 4
Add the rice and the reserved ink, carefully squeezing the ink out of the sacs and discarding the membranes. Stir until the grains are coated in the dark cooking juices. Add hot water gradually and cook, stirring regularly, until the rice is just tender, about 16–20 minutes. Adjust salt to taste.
Step 5
Finish fairly dry and moist, so the rice can form a soft mound on the serving dish. Serve immediately with Parmesan on the side. The source also allows two small onions instead of the onion-and-garlic mixture.
Step 6
For the alternative without chard or ink, omit both. Prepare the same cuttlefish, onion, garlic and oil, add the rice as soon as the cuttlefish begins to colour and cook with hot water and about 150 ml plain tomato passata, or 2 tablespoons tomato paste diluted in water. Stir in about 25 g butter during cooking and about 50 g Parmesan near the end. Cook the cuttlefish to 74°C and until tender, adding time and water if required.
Step 7
That lighter version can include 200 g peas: cook a whole peeled young onion in 1 teaspoon oil and 10 g butter until beginning to colour, add the peas with salt, pepper and a little water, and simmer until tender. Discard the onion. Stir the cooked peas into the risotto about two-thirds of the way through the rice cooking.
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