Arròs Negre (Catalan Black Rice with Squid Ink): Spilled Milk #336

Turn your kitchen into Barcelona in the summertime. I'm also getting into: the flavors ink adds to a dish, how the mayo transforms the final product, why I think arròs negre is Barcelona on a plate.

Arròs negre: Barcelona’s ink-stained triumph.

If paella is the Instagram influencer of Spanish rice dishes—golden, sunny and beloved by tourists—then arròs negre is her cooler, brooding older sister who studied literature in Valencia and smokes unfiltered cigarettes. Jet black from squid ink and briny with the taste of the sea, arròs negre is what happens when Catalonia gets her hands on paella and decides to make it moodier, deeper and slightly dangerous. I love it.

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The star is the ink, obviously. Not just for drama (though it delivers that in spoonfuls), but for its oceanic umami punch, a concentrated splash of tide pool that clings to rice and squid or cuttlefish like it has unfinished business. The supporting cast is no slouch either: A sofrito of onion, garlic, tomato, oregano, saffron and sweet smoked paprika builds flavor from bottom of the pan up. The rice, short-grained and absorbent, behaves like a sponge with ambition. It wants all the smoke and brine it can get.