Mediterranean Stuffed Calamari

This recipe showcases some of the best mediterranean ingredients and it’s extremely easy to prepare. The flavour is delicious and it’s the closest you can get to a Summer holiday without actually leaving home.

The Calamari are stuffed with bread, thinly chopped sautéed tentacles flavoured with garlic, wine, parsley and lemon zest. I love all recipes to give a new purpose to ingredients that you would normally get rid off. This one gives a new life to that old loaf of bread that lies forgotten in a corner of your kitchen.

I have to admit that I don’t cook seafood very often but, from time to time I really enjoy recipes that are close to my Greek and Italian roots. This specific one is just delicious and also extremely easy to prepare.

Ingredients

10 small calamari (12-15 cm long)
150 stale bread turned into breadcrumbs (I used an old loaf of sourdough but any bread will do)
50g grated parmesan
1 egg
1 handful of parsley
zest of 1 lemon
Salt pepper 
3 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
2 potatoes
Olive oil (I am not giving a quantity here, you can decide based on your taste)
2 tbsps of capers for the stuffing
1 tbsp of capers 
1 handful of breadcrumbs
1 small glass of white wine for the Sauté + 1 shot of white wine for the baking tin
1 clove of garlic

Step by Step

• You can normally buy calamari and ask you fishmonger to clean them for you. This will make your life so much easier and I recommend it!
  If that’s not an option you can still do it yourself and it’s actually not that difficult. You need to first wash them, gently pull away the head away from the body with your hands. Keep the tentacles. Reach inside the calamari and pull out the cartilage. This will come out easily in one piece. It’s transparent and shaped like a feather. Wash the calamari again and with your hands pull out any other bits left in the body. This is where the ink sac is stored. You can keep it if you want and use it to colour handmade pasta. Now it’s time to get rid of the skin. Perform a little incision and pull the skin away with your hands (it comes out quite easily). You calamari is now ready!

• Thinly chop the tentacles and sauté them in olive oil and garlic for a few minutes. Add the wine and turn the heat up. As soon as the alcohol evaporates they are ready

• In a bowl combine the bread, the sautéed tentacles with their juice, parmesan, thinly chopped parsley, thinly chopped capers, lemon zest, the egg, salt, pepper and a very generous drizzle of olive oil. Mix everything until combined

• Time to stuff your calamari. Stuff 3/4 of the calamari. The calamari will shrink in the oven and the stuffing will grow. 3/4 is the perfect ratio. Close the calamari with a toothpick to seal them

• Cube your potatoes and cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Place them in a baking tin with salt, pepper and a generous drizzle of olive oil

• Preheat your oven at 180C static

• This needs to be baked in stages to ensure you get tender calamari

• Stage 1—> Bake the potatoes and cherry tomatoes for 20min

• Stage 2 —> Add your calamari in the baking tin with the potatoes and add the remaining capers, breadcrumbs and another drizzle of olive. Cover the baking tin with foil and bake for 20 mins

• Stage 3 —> Get rid of the foil and bake for another 10 mins

• Stage 4 —> Turn to grill for 5 mins

• Time to enjoy them!

Tips & Cheats

Don’t overcook the calamari or they’ll become very rubbery

I know that the baking steps are a few but it’s a way to achieve well baked potatoes and juicy calamari

The foil will help the calamari stay juicy

You can switch the parsley with other herbs if you prefer

Good olive oil is important in this recipe. I have not included an exact quantity as I want to let you decide how much you want to use based on your taste. You will need it for the sauté, for the stuffing and for the baking.