Squid Ink Pasta

We made our very last trip to Spokane last weekend (insert as many sad face emojees as possible). My brother and sister in law are moving out of WA state, all the way to WI, of all places! *shake head* My brother moved to eastern WA 8 years ago- and ever since, we have visited each other umpteen times. Our visits involved food, of course, but more importantly, unending bouts of laughter, and togetherness. I will miss him like HECK (insert as many teary face emojees as possible)! Then he got married 3 years ago- and luckily, we hit it off- my sister in law, and I. And we continued visiting each other umpteen times. I will miss them like HECK (and now insert those very sad face emojees, and a couple mad face emojees as well)!

With moving comes packing, and with packing, there's a lot of discarding that happens. And often times, a lot of food is thrown away..... from the refrigerator, from the pantry, from kitchen cabinets, from the oven that you used for storage, etc. Yes, even from those bedside table drawers where you stash away a few midnight snacks! Well, since I was there over the weekend, my dear bro and sis in law figured why not give some of that food to someone who would actually use it. And lucky me, got to bring back quite a few things, including some interesting stuff, that I would otherwise have never even thought of buying. One such interesting item was Squid Ink Farfalle.

Squid Ink Farfalle

My first thought was, uggh, not sure if this is going to be good. However, I went ahead, and the result was pretty darn good! Of course, I first looked it up online- and from what I read, the best recipes for squid ink pasta incorporate some sort of sea food, so that the flavors complement each other.

I cooked the pasta for 5 minutes (the instructions said 3-4 minutes). That pasta water turned dark- obviously the squid ink had something to do with it!

Squid Ink pasta, al dente

Ingredients: 

1. Cooked Squid Ink Pasta (this was farfalle)

2. Some garlic powder (crushed garlic would work well too)

3. Some Italian seasoning (you know, oregano, thyme, basil, pepper etc)

4. Some veggies of your choice. I used colorful sweet bell peppers, and green olives.

5. Seafood of your choice- I used tuna for this one. You could most certainly use calamari, that happens to be squid, actually- that'd make it even better.

6. Salt per taste

7. Some oil to sauté

8. Lemon juice

Method:

There isn't a big procedure here, really. I mean, you've made pasta before.....

1. Sauté the sea food, the veggies, throw in the cooked squid ink pasta. Stir it all up.

2. Don't forget the garlic powder/crushed garlic, italian seasoning, and salt per taste.

3. I like to zing it up with freshly squeezed lemon juice right in the end. Done!

Squid Ink Farfalle- YUM! 

The squid ink pasta tasted pretty good. Simple, and elegant. And it wasn't "squiddy" at all. The kids loved it, until after they had finished eating, when I informed them that it was squid ink pasta! *Clever Mom* ;)

So there- getting some squid ink pasta from my bro and sis in law was nice- though them moving away, to the land of moos (get it?), and cheese is certainly not nice! *smirk* But well, the positive thing is that we can make longer road trips every summer, and they can do the same every winter- perfect! That long desire of going RVing might come true after all!