I was rooting around the pantry yesterday and found all kinds of goodies that I had nearly forgotten about. I decided to use some of them for dinner but I wasn’t quite sure what to make. I found some 
nice dried grayish-black squid ink fettucine, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes and good olive oil in the pantry. Some onions and garlic in a basket. Basil in the garden, prawns in the freezer and some great pancetta I hand-carried back from Italy. I didn’t have a recipe so I decided to make one up. Pairing a nice salty pancetta with seafood is a classic move, but I also added some spice, some tomatoes and hoped for the best. It turned out extremely well…not the most photogenic dish as the sauce drowned the noodles but the taste was great and in person, the dish was truly stunning… The black and red color contrast, the saltiness of the pancetta and the sweetness of the prawns and basil, tomatoes, etc. all together made a very satisfying dish…
Here is the simple recipe; this is one you can adjust to your liking depending on ingredients you have on hand. First boil up some water and throw in squid ink pasta that will take about 
10 minutes to cook… Meanwhile, take another pan and place it over high heat. Add a generous amount of good olive oil, some chopped onions, chopped pancetta (or good bacon) and garlic and stir to soften. Add the prawns (I put them in whole as I like the juices that come from the heads/shells, but you can put them in peeled if you prefer) and about a small can of chopped canned tomatoes. I also added chopped sun-dried tomatoes, the liquid from the canned tomatoes and about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Salt and pepper liberally. Toss until the sauce is reduced a bit and the prawns are cooked. Turn the flames off and spoon over the cooked pasta. Garnish with chopped basil. Super easy, super quick and it looked terrific. Tasted great too.
9 Responses
Good heavens! You are outdoing yourself with each post, MM! The dish looks sublime.
I’ve got prawns and bacon in my fridge. I’ll have to substitute the squid ink pasta and the chopped basil. All I got is fettucine and dried basil. :(
It is a great break from marinara and pesto sauces. You used all the superb ingredients so the end product came out wonderful. The way you arranged your ingredients, they were kept in individual plates – you really fired up the stove! The prawns alone are great by themselves with the addition of the pancetta, squid ink and the pasta you flared it up. Nice job!!!!
looks fantastic as usual, MM!
Yum! Thanks for that seafood pasta recipe MM. :p
you are heaven sent :) my bf who never ate pasta until we tried this kind at season’s resto in tagaytay has been bugging me for the longest time to duplicate the dish..i didn’t know where to find the squid ink pasta, pls. let me know where you bought it..i’ve tried to lure him into eating other pasta dishes but to no avail because he wanted this specific pasta..your blogspot never fails to brighten my day (in the same way that anton’s awesome planet does) but today you have unwittingly allowed your post you to touch a complete stranger’s soul, ain’t that great?! I will summon the cosmic powers of the universe to conspire and throw good karma your way :) …but first, where did you buy it pls? many thanks in advance :)
helena, unfortunately, the black noodles or squid ink pasta, was purchased in New York. However, if you really want it, you can make pasta from scratch and add bottled or fresh squid ink. Alternatively, you may want to check Terry’s selection or Santis or Bacchus for the dried black pasta.
Roselyn,glad to oblige. Maria Clara, the pancetta (a really special smoked version I carted back in hand-carry) was really good with the prawns! Doddie, your ingredients sound like they would make a great pasta dish! Gigi, it doesn’t pass the South Forbes low carb diet guidelines however…
Love the recipe idea, and I’d very much like to try it; however, I’ve been looking for black pasta for a long time, but it appears to be quite a rare find in NYC.
Do you know which stores sell it? Many thanks.
Jeeves
Jeeves, I think it was sent to me by my sister. I suppose a good bet would be Dean & Deluca, Whole Foods, Citarella or perhaps other higher end stores… Alternatively, you could make it by doing a regular pasta recipe then coloring it with bottled squid ink (I have a post on squid ink somewhere in the archives).