Black sepia white paste

Andrea Ruisi likes to define himself as a visionary Chef, but also and always an engineer. In fact, his story begins with a prestigious degree in computer engineering that launches him into the world of technology. But after 12 years of entrepreneurial career, his passion for cooking takes over. He therefore decides to devote all his energy and time to the art of cooking by becoming a Chef with high-level technical skills and practical experience, traveling the world and becoming an ALMA ambassador (International School of Italian Cuisine). He is a member of our Technical Scientific Committee (CTS) and has honored us with this precious recipe.

Black paste, white cuttlefish

orspaghetti with Sicilian grains on the guitar as I make them, creamed with cuttlefish ink as my mother does, raw cuttlefish and chamomile

Two words before turning on the stove.

The first recipe I think of, when asked for a recipe, is very often that of my pasta alla norma. Before moving on to ingredients, pots and pans, however, I want to express a couple of concepts. I want to talk about Coherence and Haute Cuisine, and I want to tell you why the recipe I will tell you today will not be pasta alla norma.

One of the words I care the most when it comes to gastronomy and cooking is Coherence. Gastronomic coherence is a vast but profound concept. It means using preparation and cooking techniques that are consistent with the ingredients you use, using ingredients that are consistent with the season in which you are, and products that are in turn consistent with the territory that they claim to tell and interpret. Only in this way, and only when all this reflects (clearly, in a coherent way) who we are as people and professionals even before being cooks, returning the leading role to the product rather than the chef, then it is possible to give an identity to a dish to your own kitchen.

The second topic I want to address is, instead, trying to demolish a big, huge misunderstanding. I often ask my interlocutors during masterclasses or show cooking what “Alta“ Cuisine means to them. The image that most often emerges from the collective imagination is that of a refined cuisine, almost haughty, often at times self-referential, which rises above everything and everyone, looking haughtily at its users from above, as if those who are bass was hardly worthy of her and of understanding her.

Far from being an art, however, remaining a craft that ends in an ephemeral instant of organoleptic pleasure with the hope of being able to snatch a smile and instill a good memory, the word Alta should be understood in a very different way when referring to the kitchen. Let’s think rather of the expression Alto Mare. Being on the high seas, open seas. Deep. Here. Italian is a wonderful language. Deep sea. Deep sea.

It is in these terms that, in my opinion, haute cuisine should be understood. Haute cuisine is Deep cuisine. So it was passed on to me.

Let’s take a simple and humble dish of pasta and beans, prepared at the right time of the year and with the skill of cooking techniques that enhance both the organoleptic qualities and the healthiness and nutritional properties. Prepared knowing that the combination of legumes and grains is nutritionally correct and complete as in general grains are low in lysine while they are rich in sulfur amino acids, and at the same time instead legumes are low in sulfur amino acids and are rich in lysine. Prepared in the awareness that that pasta is precisely that pasta because it is produced with that particular grain that comes from that particular place, and only from that place, milled in a certain way, kneaded that way and dried that way, and those beans are those beans because they are children of that specific terroir, of that variety, grown in that place, collected at that moment by the hands of a specific person.

Here. When this happens, when curiosity is combined with knowledge and competence and the kitchen has a solid reasoned basis, that is the moment in which Coherence reaches its peak, and that simple dish of pasta and beans becomes by right a dish of Haute Cuisine, of Deep Cuisine.

Remember, everything is written in a recipe except the recipe. Which, where consistent, is history, culture, wisdom, tradition, science, innovation. Italian cuisine is the cuisine of mothers, and their mothers before them. Jealously guarded over time as a side dish to Mediterranean conviviality, and kindly innovated over time.

Good. It is precisely for this concept of consistency that the recipe I prepare for you today is not pasta alla norma. Because the tomato is not in season, and neither is the aubergine. Because, if you take a walk in a market in Palermo today in November, you will find the first beautiful, fresh, shiny cuttlefish on the stalls of the fishmongers. Often, he still (poor things) lives. Pasta alla norma, with its wonderful history and geography, needs tomatoes ripened under the scorching August sun, different colors and noises, and I will tell you about it maybe in a couple of seasons. Today, however, I will tell you about “black paste, white cuttlefish”.

CHEF

Andrea Ruisi

KITCHEN

siciliana

DIFFICULTY

Average

DATA FOR PREPARATION

30 min
Prep

20 min
Cooking

55 min
Total

4 People
Doses

Recipe

INGREDIENTS

For pasta

Sicilian Maiorca soft wheat flour 200 gr
Sicilian durum wheat semolina Timilia 100 gr
Medium eggs n. 2
Hot water 50 gr
Cuttlefish ink (the black bag of one of the two cuttlefish)

For the dressing

Very fresh cuttlefish n. 2 of about 400 grams each
French shallot 70 gr
The black bag of the other of the two cuttlefish
Tomato concentrate 100 gr
Red garlic from Nubia n. 2 cloves
Dry white wine 100 ml
Extra virgin olive oil to taste
Black pepper and salt qb
Dried organic chamomile flowers n.2 spoons
Agar agar powder 2 gr
Lemon with untreated peel n.1
sugar 50 gr

Other, but not least

350 grams of patience
A pinch of good humor
100 ml of stain remover for clothes
Background music to taste

PREPARATION

First, turn on the background music, arm yourself with the 350g of patience, and activate the pinch of good humor. Keep the stain remover handy. They are essential for the success of the recipe and to remove cuttlefish ink stains.
Then clean the cuttlefish, keeping the two bags of black, depriving them of the entrails, peeling them and then cutting one into cubes, and the other into very thin strips. Place the strips in the refrigerator, covered.
Then prepare the dough for the spaghetti: if you have a planetary mixer, put all the ingredients in the mixer and mix with the k whisk or the hook until a smooth and homogeneous dough is obtained. Finish the dough by hand if necessary. If you work everything by hand, mix the two flours and place them in a fountain on the work surface. Pour the egg, a bag of cuttlefish ink and the water in the center, and start incorporating the flour slowly with the help of a fork. As soon as the consistency allows it, knead by hand, vigorously, until you get a smooth and homogeneous dough. Then cover with cling film and place in the refrigerator to rest for at least one hour (and a maximum of 24).
Obtain heads from the peel from the lemon, and blanch them in water two or three times to remove the bitterness. Then soak them in a syrup of boiling water and sugar (150 ml water, 50g sugar) and let them cool in the water and rest there for at least an hour.
Take a large pan, pour in the extra virgin olive oil, and then stew the shallot, very finely chopped with a knife. Add a pinch of salt and a drop of water to help you. As soon as the shallot is stewed, add the cuttlefish cubes, let them brown for a minute or two, then blend with the white wine. Add the tomato paste and let it cook over medium / low heat for a couple of minutes, then add the second bag of the black, and finish cooking for another two or three minutes.
Retrieve the dough from the fridge, let it return to room temperature, roll it out with the help of a rolling pin or a dough sheeter and then make the spaghetti alla chitarra (if you don’t have the appropriate tool, make some thick noodles). Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water in which you have placed two tablespoons of chamomile flowers to infuse, then drain the spaghetti and stir in a pan for the last minute of cooking with the black sauce.
Place a nest of raw cuttlefish noodles on top of the pasta, finished with the lemon heads and the crushed chamomile flowers.
The chef’s touch: if you want an effective garnish, you can prepare a chamomile jelly, dissolving 2 grams of powdered agar agar in 300 ml of very strong chamomile. Bring to a boil, then let it cool, blend with an immersion blender, sift the puree obtained and then use to garnish with the aid of a squeeze bottle / kitchen bottle.
A curiosity: in general, the doughs of soft wheat flour are more suitable for lamination and contain eggs to compensate, with the lecithin contained in it, for the lower aptitude for the development of gluten, those of durum wheat semolina are instead more suitable for drawing and are made with water instead of eggs.