It’s been a long time since I’ve stuffed squid.
Don’t get me wrong – I’ve stuffed a heck of a lot of dishes in between, but stuffed squid is one process I’ve avoided since it narrowly won me an Immunity Pin during my stint on MasterChef Australia.
It was Italian week, and, unlike the seasons that came after it, this meant we actually went to Italy.
We spent two whole weeks taking in the sights, smells and (most importantly) tastes of this “beautiful” part of the world, from the prosciutto in Parma to the headily aromatic tomatoes in the street carts of Rome.
This particular challenge required me to cook off against a formidable opponent – Mindy – whose cooking prowess had already been rewarded with an Immunity Pin of her own.
The only person standing between her becoming “Twin Pin Mindy” was one half of the Greedy Italians, Antonio Carluccio… and me.
Antonio’s Piazzaiola Style Squid incorporates some of my favourite things: tomatoes, seafood, leftovers and the word “stuffed”.
My version is much simpler, because the rice is cooked off separately (so harder to stuff… or should that be easier?) but you can sub the stuffing ingredients for anything you particularly like to eat also – whatever you have leftover in the fridge that can be cut up into cubes, really.
I’ve used calamari tubes from Claringbold’s Seafoods that are clean and ready to go, but if you’d prefer to grab some squid or calamari with the tentacles still on and do the dirty work yourself, you do get the added benefit of grilled tentacles through the stuffing.
Stuffed Squid with Tomato Sugo
Ingredients:
5 squid or calamari tubes, cleaned
1 cup of Brown rice, cooked
1 brown onion, finely diced
2-3 garlic cloves
Leftover chargrilled or roasted veggies (or I guess you could char them for this recipe also) cut into small cubes (or brunoised if you wanna get fancy)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 egg, whisked
250ml passata
2 tablespoons of capers
3 anchovies
1 tsp. brown sugar
parsley, roughly chopped
salt flakes
pepper
olive oil
Method
- Sautee the onion and garlic until translucent
- Scoop out half of the sweated down mix and add to cooked brown rice, brunoised vegetables, lemon zest, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Bind with whisked egg until combined
- Stuff the calamari or squid with the mixture while you heat a large pan with a little olive oil.
- Sear the calamari on all sides until charred. Reserve.
- Add back the rest of the onion and garlic, pour in passata, capers, anchovies and bring to a simmer
- Pop in the calamari tubes and cook gently, uncovered, for about 15-20 minutes. Switch off the heat, sprinkle with fresh parsley and allow the tubes to sit in the sauce for a couple of extra minutes
- Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve your stuffed squid with crusty bread.
