Warm salad of cuttlefish and asparagus with cuttlefish ink dressing

By: Nathan Outlaw
From: British Seafood
Serves: 4
Photographer: David Loftus

When it’s in season, we get a lot of cuttlefish in Cornwall and I love cooking with it. Unfortunately, it’s not very popular in the UK and most of the cuttlefish caught around our shores goes abroad, which is a real shame as it’s a great sustainable British seafood.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1kg	cuttlefish, cleaned and left whole, ink reserved
	olive oil, for cooking
1	onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2	carrots, peeled and chopped
4	garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
6	ripe tomatoes, cut into quarters
100ml	dry white wine
600ml	Roast fish stock
2	shallots, peeled and finely chopped
75ml	red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon	cuttlefish ink
150ml	extra virgin olive oil
16	asparagus spears, lower part of stems peeled
20g	fine capers
4 sprigs	tarragon, leaves only
squeeze	lemon juice
	cornish sea salt
	freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat and add a drizzle of olive oil. Add the onion, carrots and garlic and sweat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes.
Add the wine and let bubble to reduce right down, then add the fish stock. Bring to a simmer, add the cuttlefish and simmer very gently for 1½ hours or until tender. When the cuttlefish is ready, remove it from the stock with a slotted spoon and leave to cool. Strain the stock, cool and reserve 100 ml for the dressing.
For the dressing, in a bowl combine the shallots, wine vinegar and the 100 ml reserved cuttlefish stock and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Whisk the cuttlefish ink into the extra virgin olive oil and then whisk this into the shallot mixture. Season with salt to taste.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the asparagus for 2 minutes. (If you’re doing this ahead, refresh in iced water.)
When cool, cut the cuttlefish into 2 cm strips. Gently warm these in some of the dressing (don’t let it get too hot). Place the asparagus, capers and tarragon in a large bowl and gently mix with the warm cuttlefish. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the salad in warmed bowls or soup plates with the rest of the dressing in a jug on the side and some crusty bread.