Salsa Negra Vasca

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy sauté pan, about 24cm
• •Stick blender or countertop blender
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Whisk
• •Heatproof measuring jug

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the bread

   Warm the olive oil in a heavy 24cm sauté pan over medium heat. Add the bread and cook for 60 to 90 seconds on each side, until deep gold and crisp at the edges. Lift it onto a plate and lower the heat. Don't let it blacken. Burned bread has nowhere to hide in a sauce this dark.

2. 2

   Cook the onion slowly

   Add the onions, green pepper, and 2g salt to the same oil. Stir well, turn the heat to low, and cook uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring every few minutes. The vegetables must lose about two-thirds of their volume and become dark gold, soft, and almost jammy, with no crisp brown edges. Add the garlic for the final 2 minutes. This slow sofrito, the cooked vegetable base, supplies the sweetness that balances the ink. Rush it and the finished sauce tastes sharp and bitter.

   If the onion begins catching before it is soft, add 15ml water and scrape the pan. Water buys the onion time without adding more oil.
3. 3

   Reduce tomato and wine

   Add the tomato and cook over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until its water has gone and small beads of oil show around the edges. Crumble in the toasted bread, pour in the wine, and scrape up everything stuck to the pan. Simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, until the raw smell of alcohol disappears and only a few spoonfuls of liquid remain.

4. 4

   Simmer and blend

   Pour in 275ml of the fish stock. Bring it to a gentle simmer and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until the bread is completely soft and the onions collapse when pressed. Remove the pan from the heat and blend until smooth. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean pan, pressing firmly with the back of a ladle. The sieve removes the pepper skin and onion fibres, leaving the finish properly silky.

5. 5

   Whisk in the ink

   Whisk the squid ink into the remaining 125ml cold stock until no black clots remain. Set the strained onion base over low heat and whisk in the ink mixture. Bring it only to a gentle simmer, then cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often. Never fry the ink against the bare pan or boil it hard; scorched ink turns metallic and bitter. The sauce is ready when it coats a spoon but still pours in a broad ribbon.

   If the sauce is thicker than pouring cream, loosen it with water in 15ml measures. Pésalo, no lo adivines. Small additions keep you from washing out the flavour.
6. 6

   Taste and finish

   Taste only after the ink has cooked, because both ink and packaged stock may carry salt. Add more salt only if the sauce needs it. Spoon it over sautéed squid, or return cooked chipirones and their pan juices to the sauce for a final gentle warming. The black should be glossy and complete, with sweet onion first and a clean marine finish behind it. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pasteurized squid ink in sealed sachets from a fishmonger or a good frozen-food counter. Cuttlefish ink is the proper substitute and gives the same black colour, but it is often stronger and saltier, so season after it has simmered.
• •Use a light, unsalted fish stock. Stock made from squid trimmings is best when you're preparing chipirones, but water is better than a dark commercial stock that tastes chiefly of salt and hides the ink.
• •For txipirones en su tinta, brown 1kg cleaned small squid briefly in batches, remove them, and build the sauce in the same pan. Add their collected juices with the stock, then return the squid to the finished sauce and cook gently until tender.
• •Serve the sauce with plain white rice or plenty of bread. It needs something quiet to carry it. At the table, a dry txakoli or another brisk, unoaked white wine cuts through the richness cleanly.

Advance Preparation

• •The onion, pepper, tomato, wine, and bread base can be cooked, blended, and strained up to two days ahead. Refrigerate it covered, then reheat gently before adding the diluted ink.
• •The completed sauce keeps for two days in the refrigerator. Cool it promptly in a shallow container, cover it, and reheat over low heat without letting it boil hard.
• •Freeze the finished sauce for up to one month in a tightly sealed container. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and whisk in a little water while reheating if it has thickened.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 100g)