Before the secondo piatto I blogged about yesterday, I served this pasta with squid ragù. With the feeble heat of the gas stove and the thin pans provided I could not sear the squid, so I decided to braise the squid in tomatoes to make a flavorful ragù. The juices that are released from the squid thicken and provide a lot of flavor.

You’d think it’s easy to find great ripe tomatoes in Italy, but to my horror they actually sell the same watery Dutch tomatoes as at home! I could get unripe Italian tomatoes that are great for salad, but not for pasta sauce. And so I used canned tomatoes.

Ingredients

For 4 servings

300 grams (.66 lb) short pasta, I used fusilli

300 grams (.66 lb) cleaned squid, chopped

1 can (400 grams/14 oz) chopped tomatoes

1/2 onion, chopped

80 ml (1/3 cup) dry white.wine

2 Tbsp minced fresh flat leaf parsley

extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Add the chopped onion and season with salt. Stir over medium heat until the onion is translucent.

increase the heat and add the squid.

Stir over high heat until the squid has changed color.

Add a splash of white wine and stir.

Add the tomatoes.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.

Simmer over low heat until the squid is tender and the sauce has reduced, about 1 hour. Stir regularly. Add a bit of water if the sauce becomes too thick before the squid is tender.

(While the squid was simmering, we were having an aperitif on a different boat. So I was swimming back and forth between the two boats that were anchored about 100 yards away from each other.)

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add salt and the pasta, and cook the pasta until it is al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving a bit of the pasta cooking water.

Combine the pasta with the squid.

Add most of the parsley.

Stir to mix, adding reserved pasta cooking water if needed to get a moist consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Drizzle each serving with a bit of good extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining parsley.

Wine pairing

This was great with Vermentino di Sardegna.