Creamy, juicy stuffing and smoky grill taste... Calamari are stuffed in different ways. The that I suggest today is prepared with uncooked stuffing as I like it to be jelly soft and creamy. As an option for grill cooking you may opt for pan frying, but remember not to overdo with oil, just spread some to have the oily surface. Cooking time won't have changes in this case.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
8 calamari with tentacles
8 shrimps
4 tbs crumbled bread
4 tbs grated Parmigiano
1 garlic clove
4 tbs white wine
parsley
EVO oil
Note: Make sure your fish is really fresh!!
1. Clean calamari:
- pull the tentacles out and the intestines will also go off,
- pull the bone off calamari's body,
- wash the body and pressing with fingers remove calamari's purple skin,
- throw the beak away: press between the tentacles and the eyes, so the beak will tear away,
- then cut the tentacles and throw the intestines, if you want you may keep the ink bag and cook a different recipe with it, for example this Ink Risotto from HERE,
- grate the tentacle suckers with the nails so the tiny rings from the suckers will tear away.
Or as an alternative ask your fishmonger to do it for you....
2. Wash the calamari bodies carefully outside and inside and wash the tentacles as well.
3. Chop the tentacles into tiny pieces.
4. Chop the parsley finely.
5. Mix calamari tentacles, parsley, bread crumbs, Parmigiano and white wine.
6. Cut the shrimps into pieces and add to the mix.
7. Fill the calamari bodies with the mix and
seal each with a toothpick.
8. Heat a hotplate till it's very hot and cook stuffed calamari for about 3-4 minutes each side or till it's grilled nicely.
9. Serve with some extra virgin olive oil poured over and some lemon juice...
ENJOY !!!
This pasta has quite a curious name: "Spaghetti alla Corsara" means Corsair Pirate Spaghetti.... maybe because of all this seafood, who knows...
Usually they cook this dish with tomato sauce or just cherry tomatoes... but as an option of this dish I prepare it without any tomato. I like feeling the sea flavour of the seafood. The other point is that we leave the shells of mussels and shrimps so it's not nice when you need to open the shells with all that tomato on it... and to my mind the dish looks much more attractive!
There is another name for this dish: Spaghetti allo Scoglio - Reef Spaghetti and you may easily find the dish under this name in the most seaside restaurants here in Italy.
It will just take 5 minutes to prepare the sauce and just 20 minutes for the dish to be ready.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
160g spaghetti
10 shrimps
3 calamari
16 mussels
2 garlic cloves
50ml white wine
parsley
basil
salt
chilli
~6 tbs EVO oil
Note:Try to buy all the seafood fresh, you won't have unpleasant surprizes as unopenning mussels and hard to chew calamari, though it's possible to prepare this dish with the defrosen products if you know the quality. I always do it with the fresh ones...
1. Bring water to boiling, salt it and start cooking spaghetti.
Note: How to cook spaghetti: 80g are absolutely enough for one serving (if you like more have 100g, but it's a bit too much). A package of pasta is 500g, so you take one third of the package for 2 servings, half a package for 3 servings and the whole package for 6 servings.
Take the portion of spaghetti you need and insert it into the boiling water at high heat, then with a rotating movement distribute spaghetti in the pan as a fan. They won't stick one to the other this way. Drown spaghetti with a fork. After 1-2 minutes of boiling stir spaghetti in the pan. Cook at medium-high heat.
2. Pour about 6 tbs of EVO oil into a frying pan.
3. Add garlic cloves that you cut into halves and chilli to taste. Heat the oil up at meadium heat but don't burn it, so when the garlic slices start becoming a bit browny, the oil is ready.
4. Add mussels and shrimps and splash with 50ml of white wine.
5. Cover tightly with a lid and cook over medium heat till the mussles open, it is a very quick process, so don't leave them more time then necessary as they may become too dry. Don't stir.
6. Cut calamari in rings and add them to the pan.
7. Spaghetti should be cooked for 3/4 of the time indicated on the package: I use spaghetti that should be cooked for 14 minutes, so I boil them for 10 minutes in this recipe.
8. Add spaghetti to the pan with the sauce and finish cooking, if the sauce gets too dry, add some water that you used to cook spaghetti.
Note: I use tongs to take spaghetti out of the pan and to stir the dish, so all the water from the pasta is kept, though you don't need it all.
9. Chop some parsley and basil and garnish the dish.
Note: No cheese is used in this dish as it doesn't suit either fish or seafood....
Buon Appetito!!!
This is really a full-flavour dish... Very poor in calories but substantial . You may serve it as a main course or as a sauce for short pasta, the best type of pasta for this dish is Paccheri.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
600g calamari rings
handful of black olives
couple pinches of capers
8 cherry tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1/4 lemon
OR
50ml white wine
salt
chilli
oregano
EVO oil
1. Remove the bones from the olives. If the olives are soft you may just press them gently to separate the bones from the meat and then it will come out by itself.
2. Cut tomatoes into halves or if they are quite big into quarters.
3. In a large bowl marinate calamari rings with either 1tbs of lemon juice or same quantity of white wine for 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, olives and capers. Season with some salt and oregano. You may also add some lemon peel for flavour.
5. In a frying pan heat some EVO oil and add garlic cloves cut into halves and chilli to taste.
6. Add calamari with other ingredients and cook for 5 minutes.
7. There will be too much sauce , so drain calamari with a skimmer and put them in a bowl in which you will serve them.
8. Reduce the sauce in the pan for about 5 minute.
9. Add the sauce to the bowl with calamari to season.
Note: In case you want to use the dish as a sauce for pasta, cook any short type of pasta, like Penne, Farfalle, Tortiglioni, Rigatoni... But the best one for the dish is Paccheri.
In this case the quantities of Ingredients will become for four people.
Mix calamari with pasta and serve without cheese.
Buon Appetito!!!
8 shrimps
