Black Spaghetti with Sun-Dried Tomato Paste

“There are numerous ghost stories in Louisiana”, said Patricia, who is native to New Orleans. Old plantation houses, massive oak trees with hanging Spanish moss, heavy fog over mysterious swamps and sudden rain are Louisiana’s familiar sights. They are already creepy enough. But Patricia continued, “one day, one of my girlfriends visited an old plantation house as a guest. She arrived late so the owner of the plantation house briefly greeted her and took her to a room. Then she heard rain started falling. Also she heard children started playing in the hallway. Next day, she politely mentioned to the owner about that incident. The owner was wondering and said there was no child living or invited there. As a matter of fact, she was the only guest the owner had at that day.”

The other day, my husband was startled at me eating this incredible black spaghetti with sun-dried tomato paste. He said it was peculiar. It was scarier than Patricia’s story. This black color came from natural squid ink. I love the aroma. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to obtain fresh squid ink in Louisiana. But I found this spaghetti made with squid ink. It has a slight flavor of squid ink, which is irresistible.

I made sun-dried tomato paste to mix with this black spaghetti. This paste can also be used as a spread on crispy bread. Adding parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil leaves enhances the delicious flavor of this paste and any pasta. Also this dish may give you a perfect frightening presentation for Halloween.

Ingredients:
Sun-dried tomato paste:
1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes
1-2 olive oil marinated set of anchovies
6 black olives
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of chili pepper
¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil

1 lb of black spaghetti
2-3 cloves of finely chopped garlic
¼ cup of chopped fresh basil leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in water for 30-40 minutes. Drain them and transfer to a food processor. Do not discard the water.
2. Add the anchovies, black olives without their seeds and extra virgin olive oil. Process the mixture until it becomes smooth. Season it with salt, black pepper and chili pepper.
3. Meanwhile, boil water in a large pot and cook the spaghetti in the pot for 8 to 10 minutes or al dente. Drain the spaghetti well. Toss them with 2 to 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
4. Heat 3-4 tbsp of olive oil in a large fry pan. Fry the garlic until sizzling. Add the spaghetti and sun-dried tomato paste. Mix them well. Turn off the heat and add the basil leaves. Stir them well.
5. Transfer them into saving plates. Sprinkle a lot of parmesan cheese. Serve with crispy bread!