Squid Ink Spaghettini with Salmon and Cherry Tomatoes

I learnt how to make this dish at the Sydney fish market seafood school. Recipe by head chef Richard Ptacnik from Otto ristorante at Woolloomooloo.

Ingredients:

500g piece chinook salmon fillet, skin off

2 punnets baby parsley

1 bulb fennel, finely shaved and placed in icy water

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pink salt flakes to taste (white sea salt is also fine)

250g red cherry tomatoes, halved

250 yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small red chilly, chopped finely

250ml dry white wine

300ml shellfish stock (fish stock is fine also)

600g Fresh spaghettini (recipe follows) - otherwise you can buy Latina pasta.

1 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

120g salmon roe

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Place the salmon on a chopping board and slice down the centre, removing the blood line and pin bones. Cut into 1cm thick strips send set aside.

Combine baby parsley, fennel, a little olive oil and salt and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in a large saucepan.

Add red and yellow cherry tomatoes, and cook for 30 seconds.

Add garlic and chill and cook for another 30 seconds, then add wine and stir well to create an emulsion.

Stir in Shellfish Stock.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add pasta, stir well to prevent it sticking, and cook for about 3 minutes, until tender.

Drain the pasta and add to the sauce.

Toss the pasta through the sauce then add the salmon and remove from the heat.

Add the chopped parsley and salt.

Serve pasta in bowls and top with salmon roe. Place fennel mixture on top, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve.

Fresh Spaghettini (makes about 1.4kg)

100g squid ink

1kg type 00 flour (from your supermarket)

7 eggs

Type 00 flour, extra for dusting

Place flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Whisk eggs and squid ink together and pour into the well. Stir the eggs into the flour, with your hands to form a dough. Tip onto a lightly floured work bench and knead the dough for about 5 minutes with the heel of your hand, pushing it away from you and folding it back towards you until it is smooth and workable (not too soft and not too hard).

Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for 15-30 minutes. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough out to a thickness that can go through a pasta machine. Pass the dough through a pasta machine, starting with the widest setting and decreasing the setting each time so the dough becomes thinner and longer.

Fold the pasta back over itself a few times and put the rollers back to the first setting. Repeat this until you obtain a sheen on the pasta. Then continue rolling to a thickness of 3mm. Cut sheets approximately 30cm long and pass through a spagetinni cutter.

Enjoy!