Catch of the day: stuffed squids, Neapolitan style

I never really noticed how much I miss fish till Wena came up with the theme for this Is My Blog Burning? edition. As I started getting ideas for my contribution, dishes I love and I know taste great, I noticed every single one of them needed some fish, crustacean or mollusc I would have no problem finding in Naples but never seen on sale fresh around here. The offer around here is definitely poor and I seriously miss having a decent fish market around. Therefore the choice became restricted to using local fresh-water fish or frozen one.

I really wanted to try something new with fresh-water fish, but my thought-train had started going down the Neapolitan-theme line and it was too late to stop it. So I spent the next few days examining the the frozen fish section of all local supermarkets, catching a flu in the process... just kidding. I didn't catch any flu, instead I went home with my own "catch of the day": a bag of good looking squids.

Cephalopods, that is the molluscs belonging to the family of squids and octopus are very appreciated by Italians as a source of food and I'm no exception: calamari e totani (two different kinds of squid), seppie (cuttlefish), polpi veraci e sinisco (two kinds of octopus, the first one the better tasting of the two) and moscardini (a species looking like a miniature octopus) are all prized catches and used in a number of recipes that range from appetisers, to mains, with a big proportion of pasta and risotto dishes in-between.

I was quite surprised to find out that these molluscs are considered disgusting by many. I can still see the disgusted face Daniela made at the sight of cases and cases of squid the first time she was in Naples, as we walked through the fish market in Pozzuoli. Her opinion on these weird looking animals changed pretty soon, as soon as she had her first taste of spaghetti ai frutti di mare. To put it with a football metaphor, taste beats brain 1-0. Daniela was actually the one who pushed me toward squid: as soon as she heard about the theme chosen by Wena she asked me if I couldn't maybe, please, pretty please, make something with squid. She's a die-hard squid fan now.

Another thing that gives cephalopods a bad name is their tendency to become tough and gummy. You'll never get them to melt in your mouth,that's for sure, but there's actually a very easy solution to this: cook them either shortly or very long. That's probably the reason why most squid recipes call either for quick cooking methods, like deep- and stir-frying, or long ones, like the one I used this time to make calamari ripieni, stuffed squid. Stuffed squid are a dish common to many cuisine. There's at least one French, one Portuguese and two Spanish recipes. And those are only the ones I've tasted.

The version I made is a Neapolitan classic. The squids stuffed with their own tentacles, bread crumbs, olives and capers are slowly cooked in tomato sauce for about 1 hour. The sauce, made using cherry tomatoes, possibly the Neapolitan pomodorini del pjennolo, acquires a delicious intense aroma from the squid and can be either served on the side or used for a pasta: cook one recipe and have two dishes ready, better than any buy one get one free. My version varies slightly from the classic in the addition of a drop of fortified white wine, Marsala, in the stuffing. Dosed properly it adds a nice aroma without being overpowering. I've also toyed with the idea of using dry Martini instead but haven't tried yet.

Neapolitan style stuffed squid
Serves 4-6

for the squids and stuffing:
1 kg (2.2 lb) squid (about 6 medium-sized ones or more smaller ones)
50 g (1.8 oz) salted capers, washed under warm water to remove the salt
50 g (1.8 oz) black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
5 Tbs bread crumbs
1 tsp Marsala
a pinch of oregano
a pinch of cayenne powder
EVO oil

for the sauce:
about 500 g (1.1 lb) canned cherry tomatoes or, better, Neapolitan pjennolo tomatoes, chopped.
1 garlic clove
EVO oil

Clean the squids. First separate the tentacles (and head) from sac: the sac content should come out attached to the tentacles, discard these innards. Wash sac, cut off the side "wings", remove eyes and mouth (also called beak in Italian) from the head. Chop the tentacles and wings coarsely. Heat about 1 Tbs EVO in a non stick pan and add the bread crumbs. Cook stirring till lightly browned and set aside. In the same pan add 1 1/2 Tbs EVO and the garlic and place over medium heat. As soon as the garlic starts to sizzle add the chopped tentacles and wings and cook for about five minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and set the stuffing aside to cool.

Prepare the sauce. Heat 3 Tbs EVO and add the whole garlic clove. Once it starts to turn golden-brown, remove it and add the tomatoes. Reduce heat to low and cover.

While the sauce cooks stuff the squids. With a teaspoon loosely fill each sac and seal with a toothpick: it is important that the sac remains a bit flabby. The sacs seize up as they cook and if they're filled too much they might either explode or the stuffing will come out. Once all the squids are stuffed add to the sauce, cover again and let simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes. If you have the feeling the sauce looks too thin you can uncover the pot after the first 30 minutes.

You can either eat them straight away, with the sauce, or use the sauce for a pasta (spaghetti or linguine) and accompany the squid with a vegetable of your choice.

Comments

[Wena]

ooh! that's so nice. yummy!

[pieman]

Never done stuffed squid, but 9 times out of 10 order it in restaurants whenever it crops up on the menu. Think I'll give this one a whirl, there' so much flavour going on in there, never had stufed squid stuffed with their own tentacles either. Thanks for sharing.

[Alberto]

Wena, thanks both for the compliments and for the great job in hosting this IMBB!

pieman, you're welcome. Including tentacles in the stuffing is not strictly necessary but I prefer it this way. On the other hand if you wanted a richer sauce to use with pasta, I'd leave out the tentacles from the stuffing and use them for the tomato sauce.

[Renee]

hi Alberto,
sorry it took me so long to get here... I was erm.. kinda "tied up" the last couple of days ; D

oh, this looks wonderful! you're right about cooking squid either very quickly or very slowly... while not melt-in-the-mouth, I can just imagine how tender and flavorful this is.

very interesting about the stuffing of the tentacles into the squid... what a great way to "neaten up" the presentation and to get super flavor... love it! : )