Stuffed calamari

  • medium
  • Serves 4
  • 1 hour 30 minutes
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Stuffed calamari is a southern Italian classic and a favourite of Francesco Mazzei. This recipe is taken from Francesco Mazzei's book, Recipes from Southern Italy (Penguin Random House, November 2015).

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Stuffed calamari

  • 20 medium squid, (around 1.6kg), cleaned and gutted but keep the tentacles (ask your fishmonger to do this for you)
  • 120g of frozen peas
  • 3 egg whites
  • 200g of romano pepper, cut into 5mm dice
  • 10g of chives
  • 20 sprigs of rosemary, optional
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
  • 100ml of white wine
  • 250ml of fish stock

Tomato sauce

Method

1
Begin by making the tomato sauce. Put the onion into a saucepan with half the oil and let it sweat slowly over a low-medium heat for around 15 minutes until it's soft (do not allow it to colour). If it looks as though it might catch, add a splash of water to the pan
  • 300g of white onion, very finely sliced
  • 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
2
Add the tomatoes and season with salt. Leave to simmer over a low heat for about 45 minutes, until the tomatoes are thick and rich, adding a little water if the level of the liquid gets too low. Remove from the heat
3
Put the remaining oil in another pan with the garlic and cook over a low-medium heat. When it's almost golden brown, add the basil leaves and stir. Pass the oil through a sieve into the cooked tomato sauce
4
Whisk the sauce to break up the tomatoes. If it's too thick, thin it with a little water, ideally some pasta cooking water. Pass the sauce through a wide-holed sieve resting over a bowl, and use the back of a ladle to extract the smooth mixture. Check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary
5
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6
6
Blanch the peas in boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain well
  • 120g of frozen peas
7
Put 8 of the squid and the egg whites into a food processor and pulse until they are roughly chopped. Add the peppers, blanched peas and chives and continue to pulse until you have a coarse mixture
8
Use this mixture to stuff the remaining calamari, keeping some space free at the top. Place a piece of the tentacles at the end of the filling and close the calamari with a rosemary sprig or a toothpick
  • 20 sprigs of rosemary, optional
  • 12 medium squid, (around 1.6kg), cleaned and gutted but keep the tentacles (ask your fishmonger to do this for you)
9
Trim the other end of each calamari to create a tiny hole and keep the filling from bursting out when cooking
10
Heat a large heatproof baking dish over a medium heat and fry the garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the calamari and fry for a couple of minutes until browned, then pour in the wine and let it evaporate over a medium-high heat
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
  • 100ml of white wine
11
Add 400ml of the tomato sauce and the fish stock, then transfer to the oven for 20 minutes. You can check the filling is cooked through by sticking a toothpick in the centre of the filling; it should feel hot when you touch your lips. Serve immediately
  • 250ml of fish stock
First published in 2015

Francesco Mazzei reminds us why we fell in love with Italian food in the first place, conjuring soulful dishes that put flavour first.

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