Setting #1 or #2 of what grinder? Of course the grind setting depends on the dose. FWIW, I mark the collar of the grinder with a good "start here for fresh coffee" and adjust to the age/preferred setting of the blend. Intelligentsia recommends pulling Black Cat as a ristretto, so it would be one to 1-1/2 notches finer than my start here point.

My Cremina hasn't seen much action lately, but if I were to hazard a guess, I would start with 12 grams and a fluffy but fine texture of grind. Sorry, it's hard to describe, though I offered suggestions in Just starting out, grinder setting advice?, excerpted below:

HB wrote:It's nice to have a starting point provided by someone with the same setup, but it's even better to know how to dial in any grinder. Here's the trick I've mentioned a few times: Grind a sample and pinch it between your fingers. It should feel much coarser than flour, but finer than salt. The grinds should stick together slightly; if the beans are fresh and the grounds don't adhere together, it's too coarse. If the grounds hold a fingerprint impression, it's too fine. If the coffee is fresh, you'll feel the moisture in the beans. If you don't, the grind setting is too coarse. Learning to judge the proper grind setting by feel will save you coffee, since the first extraction will already be in the ballpark.

The site's FAQs and Favorites Digest includes recommended reading and the forums' best threads. It's dynamically derived from each forums' FAQs and Favorites sticky.

If the shot chokes completely, I would move at least two notches finer on a Mazzer Mini, maybe even three. That's in the ballpark of one or two clicks on the Rancilio Rocky.

Ah well, then it's really a lost cause. Use preground coffee while saving for an espresso grinder? explains why, but the short answer is preground coffee = stale coffee. If you're stuck and have to tell them a setting, I would opt for very fine since stale coffee demands extremely fine settings. Since you're choking the Cremina and can't change the grind setting, the only workarounds I can think of are downdosing or shortening the preinfusion time. It won't be pretty though...

In terms of extraction times, some coffees seem to tolerate staling better than others. My experience with Black Cat is that it does not suffer staleness kindly. It can pull stringy dark, bitter, and woody if it's not fresh. Dropping the temperature may help, but again, I believe attempting to save preground coffee is not worth the effort. Sorry, I would give it to the wife for her garden, the tomatoes could make better use of it than your Cremina.