Stuffed Calamari (Squid) Recipe

Squid (calamari) is stuffed with a mixture of shrimp, bell pepper, celery, green onions, garlic, and crab, then baked in a vegetable tomato sauce. The stuffed calamari is served on a bed of linguine.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 12 squid tubes, approximately 1-1/2-inch diameter (see note)
• 1 bell pepper, finely chopped
• 3 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 5 green onions, finely chopped
• 10 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1/2 pound shrimp meat, chopped
• 1/2 pound crabmeat, chopped (see note)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cans (16 ounces each) tomato sauce
• 1/3 cup cooking sherry
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 1 teaspoon EACH oregano, basil, garlic salt, crushed bay leaves and black pepper
• 1 pound linguine, cooked and drained

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Rinse squid and pat dry.

Mix together bell pepper, celery, onions, and garlic. Add 1/3 of mixture to shrimp and crab with lemon juice. Stuff this mixture into the squid tubes and place them in a 9 x 15-inch baking dish.

Heat oil in large skillet and saute remaining pepper, celery, onion, and garlic mixture. Add tomato sauce, sherry, thyme, oregano, basil, garlic salt, bay leaves, and pepper. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes. Pour this sauce over the stuffed squid tubes and bake for 20 minutes.

Serve over bed of linguine. Be sure to have some garlic bread to soak up the sauce.

Yield: 6 servings

Notes: Pre-cleaned squid tubes should be available at fish markets; if you cannot find any, just cut the tentacles off of fresh squid and clean the tubes.

Mock crabmeat (again, available at fish markets) is just as good and considerably cheaper than the real stuff.

• How to Clean Whole Squid - Photo Tutorial

Recipe Source: The Complete Garlic Lovers' Cookbook from Gilroy, Garlic Capital of the World (Celestial Arts)
Reprinted with permission.