Squid Ink Risotto Recipe: How to Make Risotto Nero
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Jun 5, 2024 • 3 min read
Squid ink risotto is a creamy rice dish made with squid ink and pieces of squid. This seafood recipe makes for an earthy, flavorful main course.
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What Is Squid Ink Risotto?
Squid ink risotto, also known as risotto Nero, is a creamy Italian rice dish featuring squid ink and pieces of cooked squid. The squid ink colors the risotto black and adds an umami flavor to the rice dish. You can garnish squid ink risotto with chopped parsley. Risotto recipes traditionally call for Arborio rice—a rounded, short-grain rice with a high starch content—though you can substitute carnaroli rice or other grains for an oat or barley risotto.
The key to risotto is the cooking method: Sauté the starch and then cook it on low heat as you add ladles of chicken stock. This allows the rice to release its starches gradually, yielding a perfectly al dente result in a creamy sauce.
What Are Squid?
The term “squid” describes more than three hundred species of cephalopods. Squid are related to octopuses and cuttlefish; they are predatory invertebrates, lack external shells, and have ink sacs for defense. Varieties of squid vary greatly—the smallest is less than an inch long, while the largest, the giant squid, can reach up to forty feet in length. Gould’s squid, a species commonly used for commercial consumption, is typically less than two feet long.
People consume numerous varieties of squid, including immature “baby squid,” worldwide, particularly in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. The body (or mantle), arms, and tentacles are all edible and used in cooking, and squid ink, extracted from the ink sacs, is commonly used in Japanese and Mediterranean cuisines.
4 Tips for Making Squid Ink Risotto
Consider the following tips for making and serving squid ink risotto:
- 1. Add more ink. The more squid ink, the more black the risotto will be. You can purchase a squid with ink sacs intact or buy squid ink or cuttlefish ink from a fishmonger or specialty grocery store. Prepare and clean the squid before cooking.
- 2. Flavor with seasonings. You can use various seasonings to flavor squid. Cook squid with salt, pepper, and garlic, or add red pepper flakes, white wine, saffron, lemon juice, and lemon zest as it’s cooking.
- 3. Make seafood stock. For more flavor, cook the rice in fish stock or seafood stock. Make homemade stock using fish bones, heads, and other remnants. You can also purchase seafood stock from a fishmonger.
- 4. Top with other seafood. Add prawns, clams, or other types of seafood on top of the squid ink risotto to make a paella-like dish. For more texture, bread the squid pieces to make calamari.
Simple Squid Ink Risotto Recipe
makes
prep time
10 mintotal time
55 mincook time
45 minIngredients
- 1
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring broth to a low boil then reduce heat to low, keeping the broth just below a simmer. You want the broth to be about the same temperature as the rice while it’s cooking.
- 2
In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon of butter or olive oil over medium-low, then sauté the shallots until softened and translucent, about 4 minutes.
- 3
Add the ½ teaspoon garlic and stir continuously until fragrant, about 30–60 seconds.
- 4
Add the rice to shallot-garlic mixture, season with salt, and stir to combine. Continue stirring until rice becomes well-coated and translucent, 2–5 minutes.
- 5
Add about ½ cup warm broth and a splash of wine to the rice mixture. Stir often, until rice has fully absorbed the liquid.
- 6
Add in the squid ink, making sure it coats the rice.
- 7
Add the remaining broth in ½-cup increments, following each addition with a splash of wine and allowing rice to absorb liquid between additions, until rice is al dente, about 25–35 minutes. (You may not need all of the liquid.)
- 8
While the rice is cooking, cook the squid. Season the raw squid with salt and pepper.
- 9
In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat the remaining olive oil or butter.
- 10
Add the remaining garlic and cook until fragrant, 30–60 seconds.
- 11
Add the squid pieces to the skillet and sauté until the squid cooks through and chars slightly, about 3 minutes.
- 12
Remove the risotto pan from heat and add ½ cup cheese and pepper, stirring to combine. Cover and allow to rest 5 minutes.
- 13
Serve with additional cheese and pieces of squid. Garnish with chopped parsley.
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