The only black food colouring I could name was charcoal and you even have to check the source of that nowadays because it is often not from a vegetarian source when it comes to food!
The problem with that is that their coats are the black bit and cooking them reduces the colouring in them considerable. The beans inside are less colours considerably and when you puree the lot together (I make a black been brownie) they are more of a pale purple colour with the black beans I get.
The ones I use are black through and through. The canned ones from Waitrose are too (they are Epicure brand but you can buy them in Waitrose). They are turtle beans. You must be using something different.
Nope, mine are black turtle beans as well. Oh well...
Yes, I thought of both those too - but fermented black beans have a very strong flavour and I suspect the resulting pasta would only really be of use as noodles in an asian style dish. Can't see them being used with Italian tomato sauce and Parmesan! As for onion seed, or indeed Kalonji (Nigella) seed, I reckon it could work but you would get a speckled result. And perhaps a change in texture as the seeds would add a bit of crunch! I'll have a go at that too when I experiment with the turtle bean colouring.
I actually have a jar of black sesame seed paste in my cupboards... I was wondering what could be done with it!
If its paste, that would solve problem of potential grittiness. Good idea!
It's a very fine paste. your only problem is where to purchase it from. I bought it over the internet... unless you have something that is capable of making a very fine paste out of your existing black sesame seeds?