Food Lover's Odyssey

Stuffed Calamari {Calamari Ripieni} and Cooking in Puglia

 

I spent a lot of 2013 cooking with friends in Puglia. Last year it seemed like I was either cooking in Provence or cooking in Puglia. I certainly can't complain. Last year was so good, I'll be repeating the theme again in 2014!

Italian mamme, chefs, cheesemakers, winemakers, olive oil producers, and many other food lovers in Puglia have not only opened their hearts and kitchens up to me, but they've invited you to join us there to cook, break bread and explore their region in the sunny heal of Italy. Again in this year (and 2015 - dates coming soon), we'll be offering culinary vacations to Puglia.  Many of you have joined me over the past 2 years, and I hope many more of you will. In either case, I'll continue to share here some of the recipes and introduce you to many of my friends in Puglia.  

 
In the kitchen and at the table with Maria Grazia

 

Today's recipe comes from Maria Grazia in Manduria. I visited her at her stunning masseria, which she and her family restored and now run, Masseria Potenti.  From her personally decorated kitchen, one filled with a kaleidoscope of colors and vegetables and herbs piled high one upon  another or hanging from the rafters, we cooked some of her favorite recipes. In an earlier post, I shared Maria Grazia's recipe for herbed wreath bread from our day of cooking. Today, I'm sharing this stuffed calamari dish, the main course of our meal together. Before I even tasted the dish, I loved how bright and vibrant it was and how the stuffing brought together some of Italy's and Puglia's best ingredients - and ones you wouldn't necessarily think to combine with calamari: cherry tomatoes, Pugliese olives and olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano and mozzarella cheeses. Although, it breaks the Italian "no cheese with fish rule" and the combination works well.

 

The Italian flavors meld together with the calamari to create a sweet, salty and creamy stuffing. The remaining stuff, the extra stuffing, handful of olives and tomatoes, and olive oil, you use to surround the calamari creates one of the richest sauces ever, baking together with the calamari juices. It's also a very easy dish to make, taking no more than 30 minutes prep and cook time. Start with cleaned calamari. Mix all the stuffing ingredients in a bowl, stuff the calamari, garnish and bake for 10-15 minues. I've made it several times since my day with Maria Grazia and it is one of my favorites. It's even changed the minds of those squemish about squid to full-fledged calamari-loving converts.

 

 

 

 

Stuffed Calamari {Calamari Ripieni}

 (Serves 4 people)

4 whole calamari, cleaned with the tentacles removed

For the stuffing:

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

3/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, drained and cubed

4 tentacles of the calamari, cleaned and roughly chopped

20 olives, pitted and roughly chopped or quartered (reserve a handful of whole olives for the garnish)

15 cherry tomatoes, quartered (reserve a handful of whole cherry tomatoes for the garnish)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, plus more for the garnish

About 1/3 cup whole milk, plus more if needed

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (optional)

1 egg

 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3-4 sprigs of thyme

 

Preheat an oven to 350°F

To make the stuffing, in a bowl mix together the breadcrumbs, both cheeses, calamari tentacles, olives, cherry tomatoes, and parsley. Add the milk. The consistency should be fairly wet/loose. Add more milk if needed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the egg to bind the stuffing.

Stuff each calamari fairly full and close each with two toothpicks (toothpicks should have been soaking in water). There will be stuffing left over. Place the stuffed calamari in a baking dish and the extra stuffing and reserved handfuls of olives and tomatoes around the calamari. Drizzle the extra-virgin olive oil over the calamari and garnish. Place the sprigs of thyme on top of the calamari. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with a little chopped parsley. Slice the calamari in 3/4-inch medallions. Serve with the "sauce" created from the extra stuffing, olive oil and garnish. Buon Appetito!

 

 

 

 

Other dishes from lunch with Maria Grazia: Focaccia & Herbed Wreath Bread, Orecchiette with cima di rape (broccoli rabe), a tortino of potatoes and other seasonal vegetables, Ricotta & Marmalade tart

 

Cook with Italian friends like Maria Grazia and me in Puglia! It's an amazing 9-day/8 night Food & Wine Lover's Culinary Tour - It'll be a food frenzy, cooking party and also a history & cultural lesson through food and wine. You'll have "backstage-pass" entrance to kitchens and Italian homes and immerse yourself in the food and culture of Puglia!

 

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Other Posts on Puglia You Might Like:

The Art of Making Pasta by Hand: A Pugliese Pasta Lesson with Nonna Vata

Focaccia di Patate {Potato Focaccia} from Puglia

Lemon and Olive Oil Cake from Puglia

Herb Wreath Bread and Cooking with Mamma Maria in Puglia

Pasticciotto Leccese

Zeppole di San Giuseppe

Cheese in Puglia - Making and Eating Fresh Cheese in Salento

Artisanal Cheese at Masseria CinqueSanti in Puglia

Lecce: The Baroque Beauty of Puglia

Tour of Masseria L'Astore and its Frantoio Ipogeo in Salento

 

 

 

Mussels in Pastis from Cooking Classes in Provence

 

 

Summer flew by once again, and with it I've come full circle with the seasons here in Provence. It seems like only yesterday, I was lugging my suitcases from the bus stop to the Cours Mirabeau, passing the naked, spindly branches of the plane trees in winter. Those trees and the market have been my calendar this year. From the trees' leaves and the produce for sale on the market tables, I know exactly which season it is here in Provence.

I watched the fresh breeze of Spring blow through as quickly as asparagus came and went at the market. I wrote about cherries and summer vacation, then spent the rest of the short, not-so-hot summer in the kitchen and at the market amidst the bright bold colors of peppers, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. Right now the arbor of plane trees along the Cours Mirabeau are turning golden and beginning to fall. Just as the colors in the leaves are turning, so are the colors at the market. Now bright orange and yellow of pumpkins and squash and browns and golds of mushrooms are the colors of the market. Yes, things have come full circle and my first year in Aix and Provence is almost at an end.

 

The Rotonde fountain in Aix during Winter and Summer

Summer was very busy and I met so many of you here. Thank you, thank you, to all of you who dropped by this Summer and early Fall to cook with me! It was truly a blast and I loved meeting so many of you at the market and in my kitchen.

My cooking classes here in Provence were so much fun and such a success that I'll be offering them and even more for next year. Look for all the details on classes and vacations for 2014 in a post next week. Along with the daily cooking classes and pastry-making workshops, I'll have more: a morning food tour & tasting, and a week-long "Markets and Villages of Provence" culinary vacation. The pastry-making vacation will be back next year, too. Look out, too, for a giveway that will go along with next week's announcement!

 

Autumn along the Cours Mirabeau

 

Today though, let's talk mussels and Pastis. This dish was one of the most popular from this year's classes, and it includes an essential ingredient to any visit to Provence, Pastis. Created in Marseille, Pastis is an anise-flavored alchohol drank mostly as an aperitif. Although it is popular throughout France, it is THE before-dinner (and before-lunch) drink of Provence.

As an aperitif it's served in a tall glass, usually with 2 cubes of ice. Water is aded to your "shot" of Pastis. At 45% alcohol, I need that long top off of water, and then some more. It has a rich licorice flavor, even with the water added, and the scent is as heady and full of that lusty licorice aroma. It's a strong drink and I'm sure to cause me at least as many mishaps and folly as limoncino has. (I've only sampled Pastis a few times, so no Pastis-drinking tales.....yet.) If you cook it, though, the alcohol burns off and you're still left with the flavor infused into your food, not to mention your safe from hangovers.

 

Pastis as an aperitif

With this Moules au Pastis or Mussels with Pastis, you get a delicious sauce to flavor your mussels and extra to plunge a few toasted baguette slices into. The sauce is a blend of the mussels juices, a little wine, a little cream and Pastis, along with shallots, garlic and tomatoes. Be prepared to have many slices of butter-toasted baguettes on hand to sop up what's left at the bottom of your bowl. Trust me; you won't want to let it go to waste.

 

 

 

Mussels with Pastis (Moules au Pastis)

 

(Serves 4-6 people, 4 as a main dish and 6 as an entree/first course)

About 4 pounds mussels, cleaned with beards removed

1/3 cup dry white wine

6 cloves garlic, finely diced and divided in half

4 bay leaves

4 shallots, finely diced and divided in half

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

About 1/2 cup mussel fumet (made from mussel juice and wine – instructions below)

3-4 medium-sized tomatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 cup Pastis

1/4 cup heavy cream

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

20 slices of baguette bread, brushed with melted butter and toasted

 

In a large pot place the mussels, wine, half the diced garlic, half the diced shallots, and bay leaves. Cook on medium high heat until the mussels open, about 5 minutes. Remove the mussels with a skimmer, leaving the liquid, and most of the shallots and garlic in the pot. This is the mussel fumet. Continue cooking the fumet on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes more until it is reduced by about a third. Strain the fumet and set aside.

In a sauté pan (use two pans if one is not large enough), melt the butter on medium low heat. Add the other half of the shallots and cook 1 minute, just until they are translucent. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook another minute to dry out the tomatoes (do not let the garlic or the shallots burn). Add the fumet and bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the mussels to the pan and then the Pastis. Turn the heat on high and cook until the alcohol has cooked out from the Pastis, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cream and freshly ground black pepper and cook just until it is combined and heated through. Remove from the heat. Top with the parsley and stir in. Serve with the toasted bread slices. Enjoy!

NOTE: If you’d like your mussels to be a little spicier, you can add the freshly ground black pepper to the pan at the beginning of the cooking process, at the same time you add the second half of the shallots.

 

 

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Neapolitan Style Mussels

 

My Roman friend, Giancarlo, shared this Neapolitan-Style Mussels recipe (Cozze alla Marinara) with me during our Italian-American potluck.  I met Giancarlo by accident.  I had wanted to go back to Rome after Venice, but had not made any plans.  My friend in Venice had rented a room from Giancarlo and highly recommended I do the same.  His apartment is in the Testaccio area of Rome, previously known for housing Rome's slaughterhouses.  Now, nightclubs and bars have replaced the slaughterhouses. This residential neighborhood, with very few tourists, has many culinary delights.

  

  

 

 

  

Maybe because I was one of the only tourists in the neighborhood, he looked after me.  My first morning there, he took me around the neighborhood personally, included me in all his social plans, and directed me to the local spots for some of the best food in Rome (I'll be filling you in on those spots soon.)  A few years ago, there was NO WAY I would have strayed from my carefully laid travel plans.  I made to-do lists and was sticking to them.  Not even a handsome gondoliere or happened-upon food festival could deter me.  The list had to be checked.  This trip, I was much more laid back, embracing unexpected adventures.  Because of it I have new friends and great memories in Rome.  Martin Buber said one of the great things about travel is, “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”  A month at Giancarlo's in Testaccio was one of these secret destinations for me.

 

  

As one travels south in Italy, the food gets a little spicier.  The red peppers (peperoncini) and freshly ground black pepper give the dish some spice.  Pepperoncini, called “Viagra of the poor” are as prevalent in the food markets as scooters (vespas) are on the streets.  Also as you move south, the people of Italy change.  I witnessed more verbal battles, and occasionally physical ones, in Rome, Naples and Palermo.  I also got yelled at much more.  But, I was also welcomed and embraced more in these cities.  The food, naturally, should match the people, and the spiciness of this dish does just that. 

  

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Love Neapolitan food and its region? - Join me and taste and cook the best pizza, pasta & pastries this region offers on an 8-day/7-night all-inclusive vacation to the Amalfi Coast! We'll definitely be tasting and making dishes like this one.

Food Lover's Amalfi Coast Vacation - Reserve your spot today!

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The juices from the mussels and the tomatoes make a succulent sauce. Don’t forget to place the crostini at the bottom of your bowl before adding the mussels.  The toasted bread will have soaked up the juice and all the flavors by the time you get to the bottom. 

 

  

 

This recipe was adapted from the dish Giancarlo made for our dinner in Rome.  I hope you try it and enjoy it.  Let me know how it comes out.

 

Neapolitan-Style Mussels alla Giancarlo

(Cozze alla Marinara)

 

 

  

(Serves 4 people)

 

 

  

For the crostini:

About 20 slices of bread, from one baguette

4 to 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, sliced in half

 

 

  

For the mussels:

4 pounds mussels

1 cup wine

1/3 cup lemon juice, from 3 to 4 lemons

About 1/4 cup olive oil

6 cloves garlic, finely diced

1 small onion, finely diced

1 stalk celery, finely diced

3 to 4 teaspoons red pepper flakes

32 ounces peeled, diced tomatoes

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 bunch, flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 

 

  

2 lemons, sliced in wedges (optional)

 

 

  

Preheat an oven to 375ºF

 

 

  

To make the crostini, brush both sides of each of the slices of bread with olive oil.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned.  Rub each side of the crostini with the sliced garlic.  Set aside.

 

 

  

To prepare the mussels, clean the mussels under running water, discarding any with broken shells.  Trim the “beard” (the stringy portion) from the side.  In a sauté pan big enough to hold all the mussels in one layer, add the mussels, wine and lemon juice.  Cover and steam over medium heat until almost all the mussels have opened, about 10 minutes.  (Discard any that haven’t opened.)  Strain the liquid and set it and the mussels aside, separately.

 

 

  

In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil and add the onions and celery and cook until they are transluscent, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute.  Add the tomatoes and 1 1/2 cups of the mussel cooking liquid oregano and 1/3 of the chopped parsley.  Turn the heat to high.  Keep the heat high until it starts to boil, then turn the heat down to medium and cook another 10 minutes, reducing a bit.  The sauce should be quite dense.  If it’s too dense, add more of the mussel cooking liquid.  Add the mussels and reheat.  Taste and add more salt if needed, plenty of freshly ground pepper, and the remaining parsley.

 

 

  

To serve, place a crostini at the bottom of each of 4 individual bowls.  Spoon the mussels into the four bowls, distributing them evenly.  Pour the sauce over the mussels.  Add three crostini to each bowl and lemon wedges if desired.  Enjoy!

Related Posts:

Dining Around Naples with Napoli Unplugged

Pasta alla Genovese and Other Neapolitan Sauces at Citta del Gusto

Photo Tour of Spaccanapoli and Napoli's Historic Center

Pasta con Le Sarde and Cooking in Palermo

Pizza Lover's Odyssey in Naples Italy

Journey Through the Pastries of Napoli

Taste of the Sea and Spaghetti Siracusana

Nero di Seppie - A Traditional Venetian Dish

Roman Pasta Dishes and 10 Places to Eat Them in Rome