Calamari ripieni (Stuffed Calamari)

Frank22 February 2020mains/secondi piatti, Naples and Campania38 Comments

Everybody, it seems, loves fried calamari. But there are lots of other ways to enjoy this tasty mollusk. It’s delicious braised with peas in the Roman manner, for example, or with greens, after the Florentines.

But I think calamari really comes into its own when it’s filled with a savory bread stuffing and simmered in a light tomato sauce. The stuffing adds heft and the sauce adds savor, and result is both rustic and elegant. Stuffed Calamari may be slightly fussier to prepare than some other recipes for this tasty mollusk, but, as they say, the extra effort is well worth it.

You can serve it as a second course or, in small portions, an antipasto. Any leftover sauce is fabulous over spaghetti or linguine.

Ingredients

500g (1 lb) squid, cleaned (see Notes)

For the stuffing:

The tentacles from the squid, finely minced
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
1-2 anchovy fillets
White wine
100 g (3-1/2 oz) stale bread, cut into small cubes, soaked in water and squeezed dry (or breadcrumbs)
A handful of olives, roughly chopped
A handful of capers, well rinsed
A sprig of fresh parsley, finely minced
A pinch of dry oregano
1 egg
Salt and pepper
A handful of raisins, soaked until soft and squeezed dry (optional)
A handful of pine nuts (optional)

To finish the dish:

1 clove of garlic
100ml (1/4 cup) white wine, or more if needed
250g (1 cup) passata di pomodoro or chopped canned or fresh tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt

Directions

Clean the squid if need be and separate the tentacles from the body (see Notes) .

Mince the squid tentacles as finely as you can manage.

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add the garlic and anchovy. When the garlic is just beginning to give off its aroma, add the tentacles and give them a good stir. Pour over the wine and let simmer for a few minutes.

Add the bread (or breadcrumbs), olives, capers, parsley, plus the raisins and pine nuts if using. Give everything a turn, and keep stirring until you have a smooth, soft but compact mixture that comes away from the bottom of the pot. Add a bit more wine if it looks a bit dry or some breadcrumbs if it looks too loose. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then transfer to a mixing bowl and let the stuffing mixture cool.

When the ingredients have completely cooled, add the egg and mix well.

Fill the squid sacs with the stuffing mixture, either using a small spoon or—much easier—a pastry bag (see Notes). Leave some space at the open end and close the squid sacs with a toothpick.

In a sauté pan large enough to fit all the squid in one layer, gently sauté a garlic clove in olive oil. When it is just beginning to brown, remove it. Add the squid and turn them in the oil until they begin to stiffen and turn an opaque white. Then add the wine and let simmer for a few minutes.

Add the tomato, stir to mix it thoroughly into the cooking juices and cover. Let the squid braise until tender, probably a good 30-45 minutes (or longer if your squid is very large).

Serve the squid with their sauce while still warm but not piping hot.

Notes

Most squid sold in this country is pre-cleaned of its inedible bits, but if you have whole squid on hand, you’ll need to clean it by removing its skin, separating its tentacles from its body, and removing the innards from the body. This article from Saveur shows you how to do it, step by step.

You can use (within reason) any size of squid you prefer. As a general rule, the larger the squid, the easier it will be to fill, although you’ll need to increase the braising time according to size. You could even use cuttlefish (seppie) if you can find them, although, again, the braising time will be quite a bit longer than indicated here. For this post, on the other hand, I used small calamari, a variety which in Italy might well go by calamaretti. After cooking they were almost bite-sized and very tender. And delicious. But they were quite fussy to fill, even with a pastry bag.

And speaking of which, while a pastry bag is a great convenience for stuffing calamari, if you don’t have one on hand, a Zip-Lock bag, with one of its corners snipped off, works nearly as well. Otherwise, you can use a small spoon to shovel the mixture into the sac, but it is rather tedious work.

Make sure not to over-stuff the calamari or they will tend to burst as they simmer. I’d fill them about 3/4 of the way perhaps, leaving enough room at the open end to skewer the calamari shut with toothpicks. But no worries if the stuffing oozes out a bit while cooking—the taste will still be fine; your dish just won’t be quite as pretty.

Variations

I’ve taken today’s recipe from the estimable Jeanne Caròla Francesconi, doyenne of Neapolitan cookery, and made a few tweaks to suit my personal tastes. For one, Francesconi calls for bread crumbs rather than bread in the stuffing. I hate to throw food out, and I’m always looking for ways to recycle it. But leaving aside economy, I much prefer the smoother texture that reconstituted stale bread lends to the stuffing.

You can play around quite a bit with the stuffing mixture. As mentioned, the raisins and pine nuts are optional. Many recipes leave out the olives— and, truth be told, I think I’ll leave them out next time I make this dish. Some recipes add a bit of Parmesan (belying the old adage about not mixing fish and cheese) for extra umami. Not all recipes call for egg. And today I had some leftover sautéed chard on hand, which I minced finely and folded in. It was perfectly delicious.

As for the sauce, recipes vary a lot in terms of the tomato. Some omit it completely, while others like Francesconi, call for lots more tomato than I have above, which produces a more abundant and ‘redder’ sauce. And if you like, you can add some peas or potato to the braise along with the tomato, for a heftier dish.

You can also bake your calamari ripieni if you prefer rather than braising them. Just pop them into a hot (200C/400F) oven right after you’ve added the tomato in. Cooking times should be about the same as braising. Some people like to top the dish with some breadcrumbs or even grated cheese so it forms a crust as it bakes.

Making Calamari ripieni ahead

This is a dish that reheats nicely. If fact, like a lot of braised dishes, it may get better after a rest. Francesconi says it’s equally good served at room temperature, but I think it’s at its best warm but not piping hot.

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