October-December, this is the season for the big, fresh, Atlantic calamari. This dish takes a little time, and I enjoy immensley making it. Anybody that tried it loved it to bits!
Ingredients (serves 2-3):
2 biggish calamari, 300-320gr each, make sure that their skin is intact (after cleaning them, they ended up being 420gr in total for me)
120gr fresh breadcrumbs
3 biggish garlic cloves, diced for the stuffing
2 biggish garlic cloves, diced for the sauce
4 biggish shallots, diced (2 for the stuffing, 2 for the sauce)
4 Tbsp dry parsley (or 6 Tbsp if fresh, washed and chopped parsley)
1 tsp fine salt (for the stuffing only)
2 tsp freshly ground white pepper (1 for the stuffing, 1 for the sauce)
1/2 glass of dry white wine
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
Some extra virgin olive oil
4 anchovies fillets preserved in oil, drained, or 2 good slugs of anchovie paste
You'll need:
Scissors
A good sharp paring knife
A bowl to mix the stuffing in
A baking tray with tall sides
A wide pan
Kitchen string- make sure it's cotton and not plastic
A darning needle
Method:
Wash the calamari, and if they weren't cleaned by your fishmonger (I never let them, as I want to ensure the skin remains intact, and to remove only the necessary bits from the head, as I use that as well), remove delicately the interiors and the flat fishbone (just pull them out slowly), remove the beak and the eyes
Skin them well revealing the white meat
Cut out the wings, the tentacles, and the heads and dice them all up
Heat up some oil in the pan, and stir fry half the garlic and half the shallots until soft and translucent - do not let them brown
Add the pieces of calamari you diced up, stir and keep on high heat for 2 mins
Add the parsley, some salt and pepper, the parsley, and the wine
Reduce the heat to medium, stir and cover the pan - let it cook for 5 mins or until the liquids have been absorbed
Strain the content of the pan, juices included if any, in your bowl and set aside to reach room temperature
Put the pan back on the hob, add some more oil, then add the remainig garlic and shallots
Again, stir fry until soft and translucent - do not let it go brown
Add the anchovy fillets and break them down well with a wooden spoon
Add the tomato tins
Add the parsley and the pepper, stir well and reduce the heat to medium
Cover the pan and let it simmer for 15 mins or so
Work on your stuffing: add half of the breadcrumbs, the remaining parsleyand mix well
Continue adding the breadcrumbs, mixing well between additions: you may not finish the measured quantity, as you need to ensure it's not too "bready", the fish content must be quite visible (see below)
Add some olive oil to the stuffing (but don't wet it with it!)
Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees C (fan)
Fill the calamari tubes pushing the stuffing well down the bottom while doing so: use 1 Tbsp of stuffing, then using your tablespoon handle delicately push it down to the bottom, and continue like this reaching slowly the opening, leaving a little space as you'll need to close them up
Thread your kitchen string into your darning needle
Saw them up in big stitches
Put a layer of sauce into your baking tray, put the calamari into it, then cover them all up with the remaining sauce
Put them in the oven, in the middle shelf, and reduce the temperature to 180 degrees C
Bake for 20-25 mins
Remove the kitchen thread
Slot them into your serving dish and cover with the remaining sauce