Tasty

IT’S undoubtedly an acquired taste . . . but actually quite tasty for an evening treat.
Spaghetti al nero di sepia as produced by the Italian chef and restaurateur Antonio Carluccio is certainly a speciality dish and although ready prepared, you might possibly be put off by its colour  — when it is cooked, a slimy black!
This one is prepared with the ink of cuttlefish, and bought this way you do not have all the hassle of preparing the cuttlefish, squid, or octopus and handling the ink. But it’s the colour which will possibly put you off.  After all ordinary spag bol can be tricky enough to eat without getting the sauce all over your clothes, table cloth or even your face.
So black, slippery pasta looks likely to present even more challenges.
But the labelling promised it would be delicious with seafood or fish sauces. My choice was a salmon fillet together with a spoonful of cooked rice, peas and onion.
I should admit I have had the spaghetti for a while, but needed the moment when I was eating alone, or at least separately from my wife, to be able to appreciate this somewhat different dish.  Yet the fishy taste while not overpowering, is delicate enough to be distinctive.
And I managed it without the spaghetti slithering from fork to table or down my front. My wife declined mostly on grounds of its unappetising colour although the fact the spaghetti contains wheat and gluten would not help, and she stuck to the rice alone. 

Buon appetito!