Secret Sauce 13 - Squid Inc

𓆢 Squid Inc Risotto 𓆢

• 2 cups arborio rice
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bottle dry white wine
• 1 pint stock (chicken, fish, or vegetable)
• 1 zucchini, shredded
• ½ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
• ¼ cup chopped fresh mint
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

You will notice that this dish does not contain squid, or its ink.

Squid Inc does eat meat and fish, in small and intentional quantities, but telling you how to cook and serve our mascot felt callous. Our respect for squids is bound to both feelings of awe and of kinship.

In the kitchen of a house on a coastline, we cook our favorite risotto, fresh and herbaceous with zucchini and mint. The rhythm of cooking risotto works as self-hypnosis. The churning spoon passed between us; the dowsing and ebbing of wine and hot stock, absorbed by the rising, swelling grains; the loud viscosity of melted cheese, glued to the silver walls of the pot. We’ve created a ritual of making this dish together, and on this night, after recording our mix for Secret Sauce, we prepare it for our friends. While clanging pot lits, chopping vegetables, and refilling our wine cups, we wonder about our kin who drift beneath the waves. We imagine a squid glinting in the dimming filtered light, her body a fleck of iridescence in the indigo abyss.

Pour a generous coating of olive oil in the bottom of a large pot.

Fry onions and garlic with salt and pepper. When brown, add rice.

Cook rice in olive oil until it toasts to light brown.

Add alternating pours of wine and stock, stirring continuously. Continue until the rice is soft,

about 40 minutes.

Add the shredded zucchini, continue to stir for 5 more minutes.

Add shredded cheese, fresh mint, and pine nuts, and stir until incorporated.

Serve generously.

Love,
𓆢 Squid Inc 𓆢