It seems to have been a recurring Sunday desire to have pasta and homemade pasta sauce. Therefore, my suggestion for cooking this Sunday was - you guessed it....pasta...though, this time with out leftover sauce from two weeks back (still delicious). Spaghetti however, was not necessarily on top of my want list. I was thinking FRESH pasta - maybe ravioli or something yummy like that. So Derek and I go to this nice grocery store in Sausalito, we're looking at the fresh pasta...debating whether or not to get the $7 ravioli (not cheap, but hmm...it looked good)...when SUDDENLY Derek peeks over at the seafood counter and proceeds to make an instantaneous decision right then and there. We are having calamari. And no, not that pretty, cleaned, nearly ready to eat calamari...Derek wants the full body - skin, inside gooeyness, beak, eyes...the whole shebang!
PAUSE - Rewind.
Let's go back to a few months ago...a time when we made calamari for the first time using the full body. Guess who was stuck cleaning it while Derek was at his friend's house......ME.....and do you remember the pictures?
YUCK. I swore...never again.
Fastforward. My extreme hesitance as Derek and I quarrel in front of the innocent man behind the seafood counter. I had no shame in boldly stating my horrid disgust with the mutilation of the little creatures. However, in the end, I lost.
Fresh, cheaper, full squid wins over previously frozen, more expensive, cleaned squid.
Ok fair enough, I guess it makes sense.
So we know calamari and pasta sauce. I say with my carb-centric cravings of late - pining for crusty bread each day......."let's get bread to sop up the yumminess" - so that's what we did. After debating on the type of bread (I won....sourdough baguette vs. whold wheat round loaf)...and picking up a few more items (mushrooms) - we were ready to tackle the dreaded SQUID.
I had recalled this one dish that I had seen on a menu while perusing what I would order if we made it to Babbo (Mario Batali's restaurant in NYC). I had decided upon the cheapest dish - calamari. Though we never made it to Babbo while living there - we were able to bring a little bit of Babbo to San Francisco on Sunday.
Our choice for the night: our version of Mario Batali's 2-Minute Calamari, Sicilian Lifeguard-Style
The original recipe calls for Israeli couscous to go with the calamari. While that might have been good - we had that good crusty bread instead. Yummm.
Ingredients
Kosher salt
2-3 T. extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons currants
4 T. capers
pinch hot red pepper flakes (recipe calls for more but our tomato sauce already had some)
8 medium button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups homemade tomato sauce
1 1/2 pounds cleaned calamari, tubes cut into 1/4-inch rounds, tentacles halved
Freshly ground black pepper
Parsley, for garnish
Parmesan Cheese, grated, for garnish
Directions
In a 12 to 14-inch saute pan, heat the oil until just smoking. Add the pine nuts, garlic, currants, caperberries and red pepper flakes, and saute until the pine nuts are golden brown, about 2 minutes.
Add the mushrooms and cook until they just start to give off their water.
Add the white wine and tomato sauce and bring to a simmer.
Bring to a boil. Add the calamari, stir to mix, and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, or until the calamari is just cooked and completely opaque.
Season with salt and pepper, pour into a large warm bowl, sprinkle with the parsley and parmesan cheese, drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately.
OH MY GOODNESS THE CALAMARI WAS SO TENDER!!!!! A short cooking time really does the trick.
It was FABULOUS. I would definitely serve this dish while entertaining. Besides the cleaning part, it's a sinch.
And you may be wondering - did I help clean the squid? Answer: yes
Though I said I wasn't going to, I did. I sucked it up and helped skin gut and clean those suckers.
It was still gross.
The meal, however, was good. And I think that it probably is best to buy the whole guys when the other option is to have something that was previously frozen. With something as delicate as a squid, I'd hate to freeze it...perhaps that's a major source of the occasional chewy squid?
PAUSE - Rewind.
Let's go back to a few months ago...a time when we made calamari for the first time using the full body. Guess who was stuck cleaning it while Derek was at his friend's house......ME.....and do you remember the pictures?
YUCK. I swore...never again.
Fastforward. My extreme hesitance as Derek and I quarrel in front of the innocent man behind the seafood counter. I had no shame in boldly stating my horrid disgust with the mutilation of the little creatures. However, in the end, I lost.
Fresh, cheaper, full squid wins over previously frozen, more expensive, cleaned squid.
Ok fair enough, I guess it makes sense.
So we know calamari and pasta sauce. I say with my carb-centric cravings of late - pining for crusty bread each day......."let's get bread to sop up the yumminess" - so that's what we did. After debating on the type of bread (I won....sourdough baguette vs. whold wheat round loaf)...and picking up a few more items (mushrooms) - we were ready to tackle the dreaded SQUID.
I had recalled this one dish that I had seen on a menu while perusing what I would order if we made it to Babbo (Mario Batali's restaurant in NYC). I had decided upon the cheapest dish - calamari. Though we never made it to Babbo while living there - we were able to bring a little bit of Babbo to San Francisco on Sunday.
Our choice for the night: our version of Mario Batali's 2-Minute Calamari, Sicilian Lifeguard-Style
The original recipe calls for Israeli couscous to go with the calamari. While that might have been good - we had that good crusty bread instead. Yummm.
Ingredients
Kosher salt
2-3 T. extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons currants
4 T. capers
pinch hot red pepper flakes (recipe calls for more but our tomato sauce already had some)
8 medium button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups homemade tomato sauce
1 1/2 pounds cleaned calamari, tubes cut into 1/4-inch rounds, tentacles halved
Freshly ground black pepper
Parsley, for garnish
Parmesan Cheese, grated, for garnish
Directions
In a 12 to 14-inch saute pan, heat the oil until just smoking. Add the pine nuts, garlic, currants, caperberries and red pepper flakes, and saute until the pine nuts are golden brown, about 2 minutes.
Add the mushrooms and cook until they just start to give off their water.
Add the white wine and tomato sauce and bring to a simmer.
Bring to a boil. Add the calamari, stir to mix, and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, or until the calamari is just cooked and completely opaque.
Season with salt and pepper, pour into a large warm bowl, sprinkle with the parsley and parmesan cheese, drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately.
OH MY GOODNESS THE CALAMARI WAS SO TENDER!!!!! A short cooking time really does the trick.
It was FABULOUS. I would definitely serve this dish while entertaining. Besides the cleaning part, it's a sinch.
And you may be wondering - did I help clean the squid? Answer: yes
Though I said I wasn't going to, I did. I sucked it up and helped skin gut and clean those suckers.
It was still gross.
The meal, however, was good. And I think that it probably is best to buy the whole guys when the other option is to have something that was previously frozen. With something as delicate as a squid, I'd hate to freeze it...perhaps that's a major source of the occasional chewy squid?
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