Like Mario, I too have never met a Sicilian lifeguard, nor do I foresee myself ever meeting one in the near future. But our esteemed author felt that if one was to cook up a pot of calamari, this, as explained in this newest post, is how they would do it.
Sicily is about as southern italian as you can get. So southern that geographically it is closer to Tunisia and Morocco than Milan. So the inspiration for this dish combined the spice of Sicilian food with the sweet ingredients of Northern Africa.
I wanted to save this dish for the summer to match the warm climate and spicy food of Sicily, but with all of the single digit weather up here lately, I needed something to heat me up and make me long for warmer days.
Calamari is not one of my favorite fish in the world either, mainly because it's so hard to find a place that can cook it properly. Thirty seconds too little or too much and the calamari may as well be rubber bands. Many restaurants around my neck of the woods bread and fry the tubes and tentacles and offer a tomato based dipping sauce. Regardless of how it is prepared, this Italian staple is a great fish to add to your repertoire. Mastering it's cookery will impress any dinner guest without killing your food budget. And because it cooks so quickly, it makes a perfect meal option for even the busiest of food snobs.
Checking my ingredients, I see that the only real prep that i need for this recipe is to slice a few scallions, cut the calamari tubes into 1/4 inch rounds, and halve the tentacles.
I also need another batch of Mario's basic tomato sauce. This should be no problem for you following along with me at home because you made that big batch of sauce that I told you to make last week right? I saved what I had left from the last recipe in this blog series so I'm ready to cook. And the cooking will be quick. Surprisingly quick.
I start by boiling some salted water and add Israeli couscous, cooking for two minutes and then blanching in an ice bath.
Next I grab my sauté pan and heat olive oil until smoking. I then add pine nuts, currants, caperberries, and red pepper flakes and sauté until the pine nuts are golden brown.
I now add the tomato sauce and couscous and boil.
The calamari is now ready to be thrown into my sauté pan. It only needs two to three minutes to cook, or until the calamari turns opaque. I adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
The dish is now ready to be plated with some sliced fresh scallions.
Is that all? Is that really all I have to do? Easy peasy.
I loved the taste and texture of the couscous with the calamari. There was a bit of a kick from the pepper flakes but nothing too overwhelming. When I watched Mario make this on YouTube with Eric Ripert, he added the jalapeño pesto that I made in the last recipe. I should have added that to this dish for more heat. The flavor would have elevated this recipe from an 8 to a 10. Still, you've got to love how simple it was to put this together.
The next post is inspired entirely but my recent visit to Whole Foods Market. In fact, the main ingredient jumped out at me as soon as I walked through the front door. Until next time....
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