Cuttlefish in its ink

Cuttlefish in a rich and luxuriant ink sauce made with white wine, onion, garlic and green pepper and Arbequina extra virgin olive oil.

Alalunga cuttlefish in its ink is great out of the tin with some good bread to make the most of the delicious sauce, or with pasta, in a risotto or over fluffy white rice.

The glossy sauce is an ideal accompaniment for the tender strips of cuttlefish, and like the others in the Alalunga range, is based on a traditional recipe made by fishermen. The cuttlefish is caught sustainably close to the shore of the Cantabrian Sea in spring and autumn. Cuttlefish is known locally in Cantabria as cachón, but takes the more widespread Spanish name sepia here.

About the cannery:

Alalunga is a cannery in Cantabria, founded by brothers Alvaro and Pablo Huidobro in 2017. The name is part of the albacore tuna's scientific name: Thunnus Alalunga. The brothers hail from a family of foodies and their knack for cooking, they say, is instinctive, honed on the many family trips to Cantabrian restaurants they took as children, and their grandmother's cooking.

The quality of the Alalunga range is down to a number of factors. Here are three:

Cooking methods that are novel in the canning industry. The brothers use the sous vide technique where fragile white fish like hake and sea bass are sealed inside a vacuum pack and cooked in a water bath at a carefully regulated temperature so as to preserve their delicate flavours and texture. 

Precisely timed recipes. The pair down kitchen tools just before the cooking is complete, and let the steam ovens where the sterilisation process occurs, finish the work and bring the recipes to fruition.

And most importantly, the highest grade raw materials available are used - seasonally caught cuttlefish, line caught Galician hake, premium sea bass farmed off the Canaries, earmarked for the finest restaurants, including Michelin starred ones, and one cannery: Alalunga.