I was just about to get up from the computer and get a bowl of Chocolate Cookie Dough ice cream when I stumbled on this thread. Thank you. Now I lost my appetite. (Sorry, but sea food is my Kryptonite - yecccccch)

I had the squid in black ink sauce last month in Venice. I didn't find it too strong or too fishy. Alla Madonna restaurant doesn't serve it with pasta, though, it comes with polenta. It was very good.

ceb...to answer your latest question, yes it is pasta that is dyed with the squid ink. there may also be a sauce made with the ink but what we are talking about is the ink providing colour and flavour to the pasta...similar to green or red pasta that is infused with spinach or pepper or tomato.

i'm a little surprised that there is so little familiarity with it. it seems to be a pretty mainstream item as it's easy to find in a supermarket.

Hi, what I was talking about is the squid ink sauce not pasta that is made with the squid ink. Anyway, I really like it!

If you had it prepared well, it should not be too salty. The ink is sold seperately because the sacs are very delicate and won't travel intact .

Actually I was talking about the pasta with squid ink sauce, also. In my earlier post I couldn't think of a good way to describe the texture, but someone else said "minerally" and that hits the nail on the head.

Funny how you couldn't in a million years get me to try escargot, but I had absolutely no qualms about the squid ink.