Stuffed Calamari

This is one of my favorite seafood recipes and it makes a great addition to a Christmas Eve seafood feast. It also makes a great appetizer for a holiday dinner – easy, but deliciously elegant! Buon Gusto! #LidiasRecipes #LidiasItaly #LidiasKitchen #LidiaBastianich #ItalianFood #25YearsofLidia #FromLidiasTableToYours #LidiasSoundtrack

Recipe – https://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/stuffed-calamari-2/

Great with – https://youtu.be/DccKd2SmxGk

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Calamari stuffed Calamar is one of my favorites and certainly when you go fishing you catch them fresh uh you clean the skin and you use the tentacles and all of it in the stuffing but most of you really can buy it just like this you buy the the bodies the tubes of

Calamari nice and clean and ready to go and these are perfectly fine and I’ll show you how to make the stuffing for those put some breadcrumbs in there some grated cheese boiled egg chop it just so that gives it a texture and it will also bind the whole stuffing chopped parsley olive

Oil pinch of salt and some wine and just mix it until it’s all moist but kind of compact let’s stuff the calamari now the toothpick so you you kind of hold the calamari on one side a teaspoon that will fit into your and you kind of don’t over stuff the

Calamar but you slowly put it it in and I’m looking yeah this is enough because the Calamar when it Cooks It bakes it tightens up it becomes smaller and becomes nice and plump and you don’t want it to explode so we’ll put it right in

There and so on down the line you stuff all of your Calamares I have plenty So calamari you know calamari uh when I was young in estria I used to go and fish with my uncle Emilio he used to go in the evening when it got dark and what he would have me do is Rip ribbons of white cloth from an old sheet and then I

Would be in the back of the boat by the light with this shimmering kind of tail and the Mari would float up to see to investigate what was that moving they thought it would be something to eat he had this kind of it looked like an

Upside down palm tree full of hooks and he would throw it in and lasso in the calamari and what was great about the calaris when I had the time when they were on board and they were still alive uh the pigment but I used to play with

It I used to touch it with my fingers and all of the coloring the pigment would move all around the calamari and I used to have fun with that um you know these calamari are delicious because they’re small but they’re tough to to stuff so I’m going to get even a smaller

An espresso spoon I think that should do it so you know when you’re in the kitchen common sense because Common Sense works you know if the this the spoon was too big then we need smaller equipment to get it in but you know what at the end the small calaris are going

To be delicious ious and you know I’m finishing the last one but they do take patience to fill but you know then everything that’s good needs a little extra work so here we are that’s done let’s make the sauce parsley sliced garlic lemon Juice slices of lemon this really it’s when it Cooks it’s delicious you eat sweet pieces of lemon with the Calamar it’s really good Capers lots of Capers some anchovies anchovies are always that extra addition of flavor but I would chop it just a little

Bit okay put it in add a little bit of oil little bit of wine let’s mix this so this is the sauce that we’re going to pour over the calamari and then put them in the oven now I see we have some of the stuffing left let’s pour that over it and that

Will kind of incorporate in the sauce and make it denser and just pour the sauce over all of the calamares this is ready to go in the oven just like this we want a high temperature calamares cook quick there’s nothing much else to cook but you do

Want to develop aof sauce so a 450° hot oven for about depends on the size of them half an hour to 40 45 minutes and they will be done so the calamares are done and you see how they plumped up because the actual tube calamari tightens up and the stuffing

Inside fills the calamari so now we have the toothpicks and you can remove it for your guest but you know your guest can handle it right I think so and here they are just like this put them on a nice beautiful platter okay maybe maybe one

Here this one is mine I’m going to taste it in a minute but let’s put on the sauce now and you know I’m going to put the sauce around it because I kind of like the crunchiness of the lemon of the calamari I don’t want to smother it okay

I think this looks good now let me fix mine up here parsley some nice fresh parsley AET just like this it’s like the bouquet of flowers on this beautiful dish you bring it to the table let everybody help thems this is a great dish family style just advise them that they’re the toothpicks

In there you could take the toothpick out just like that now let me cut in the middle so you get to see the stuffing here is the stuffing and it certainly looks good and now let me taste I like a little piece of lemon as well and let me cut H little

Capers really good la the deliciousness of the sea just delicious you can make them in advance and just bake them the last minute and to that end I certainly have enough and I’m going to invite you but you’re going to have to take your own toothpicks out I’m sorry so come

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