Trofie with Pesto & Calamari
I am finally back in the kitchen with a special guest of honour: my mum!
This first recipe we cooked together was inspired by a dish we tried while we were on holidays. The official name on the menu was “Calamari Carbonara” but what we actually got didn’t have much to do with the beloved Roman dish. It was instead was a herby pesto with a few tiny calamari pieces scattered around. It was not bad, but it was not great either. It needed an extra kick.
The next morning, my mum and I sat down and had a chat about how we could improve the dish. We agreed that a classic basil pesto would do the job better than a mixed herb one. We want one distinct taste and not many distracting ones that would cover the taste of the calamari.
We also agreed that the calamari should be the guest star of the dish and in order to make it thrive you need to season it and cook it along with some wine, garlic and a hint of chilli.
Last but not least, a teaspoon of lemon zest at the end will help you link the pesto to the calamari seamlessly.
Here’s the recipe!
Pesto 2.0
Ingredients
For the pesto
30g of basil leaves
40g of parmesan
10g pine nuts
1 pinch of coarse salt
60g of extra virgin olive oil
Half a clove of garlic
For the calamari
300g fresh calamari
1 clove of garlic
1 small piece of chilli (dried or fresh)
Olive oil
½ a small glass of white wine
Salt and Pepper to taste
½ a glass of white wine
Pasta
500g trofie (or any pasta you prefer)
1tsp lemon zest
Cooking time & People
30min
Serves 4 people
Step by step
The pesto
You can choose to make it the traditional way with a pestle and mortar or you can simply blitz all the ingredients together. If you blitz them, put in first the pine nuts, garlic and basil
Add in the oil, parmesan and cheese after a couple of minutes and keep going with the blender until you reach the consistency you like. Don’t forget to taste it and adjust accordingly. Put aside
The calamari
Clean the calamari and cut it lengthwise into small strips of roughly 3mm width
Add olive oil in a non-stick pan, garlic and chilli. Sauté for a few minutes. When your kitchen starts to smell really good, you’ll know it’s time to add in the calamari
Season your calamari with salt and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes at medium high. Add in your glass of wine and turn the heat up. Let cook until the wine and part of the juice has evaporated. Cooking the calamari shouldn’t take more than 5 to 6 minutes
The pasta
Add water for your pasta in a big deep pan. Don’t forget to add plenty of coarse salt in to season your pasta
When the water for the pasta starts boiling add in your trofie (or any other pasta you’ve picked). Cook it according to the instructions and drain
Mix the pasta with the pesto and teaspoon of lemon zest off the hob
Divide the pasta on plates and add in a generous tablespoon of calamari on the top of your plate. Drizzle with fresh olive oil, add a pinch of grated lemon zest and serve
Tips & cheats
Choose the calamari well. The tinier they are the more tender they’ll be.
Don’t be tempted to overcook the calamari or they’ll end up being very chewy.
Always taste your pesto! We normally don’t follow a recipe for this. We just add in the ingredients and keep tasting until we reach a result we are pleased with. Do the same to achieve your perfect pesto.
Don’t overdo it with the lemon zest as it might overpower the other ingredients. 1 tsp should be enough.
