Nutrition

Calories: 257kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 265mg | Sodium: 546mg | Potassium: 544mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 771IU | Vitamin C: 27mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @agiletestkitchen or tag #agiletestkitchen!

Food safety

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

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If you're looking for something to do with calamari besides deep frying it, try this racy recipe filled with juicy olives, fresh cherry tomatoes, and briny capers. The classic southern Italian puttanesca sauce is ideal for making an exciting and easy calamari dish that takes under 15 minutes to cook.

Because it quicks so quickly, this is a great dish to have any night of the week of year. It can be served as a main course or as a nice shared appetizer.

Serve along side some classic beans 'n greens, honey garlic brussel sprouts, or these sultry anchovy appetizers from Spain.

Alternately, the classic pairing with any seafood stew is crusty bread. However, great gluten free options include boiled potatoes, rice pilaf, or steamed vegetables. I like to contrast the red color of this dish with a yellow saffron rice pilaf or turmeric rice and serve with a green salad.

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Ingredients

Labeled ingredients for calamari puttanesca

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Minced garlic and olive oil in a stainless steel pan

Start garlic and olive oil in a cold pan. Gently heat over medium heat until the garlic just starts to sizzle.

Garlic, anchovy, chili flakes, and tomato paste in a stainless steel pan

Add the chili flakes, tomato paste, and anchovy to the pan.

tomato paste and olive oil in a stainless steel pan

Mash up the anchovies and toast all the ingredients together for about 10-30 seconds.

Piles of tomatoes, olives, capers in a stainless steel pan

Adds the olives, cherry tomatoes, and capers to the pan.

Tomatoes, olives, capers mixed together in a stainless steel pan

Gently cook the vegetables for about 1-2 minutes to allow them to caramelize with the hot oil. (It really does help to develop a more complex flavor.)

Deglaze the pan with white wine. (Rose or red wine works too.) Increase the heat, and bring the mixture to a low boil.

Cook until the tomatoes start to burst and the alcohol in the wine starts to burn off. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Keep stirring, so nothing starts to stick.

Add the squid tubes to the pan. Bring the mixture back up to a simmer.

The squid only takes 1-3 minutes to cook. Keep stirring, so all the squid touches the hot liquid and cooks evenly.

Turn off the heat, and stir in the parsley and lemon zest.

Hot Tip: Please DO NOT OVERCOOK the squid. It will become chewy and unedible. Squid has to either be cooked quick or braised for a couple hours to become soft again.

Substitutions

Storage

Once the dish has cooled, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Freeze for up to 1 month.

Tips to make it easier @home

  1. Mis en place: Chop all the vegetables first, wipe down the cutting board, and then pull out the calamari from the fridge to clean and cut it. Then you only have to wash the cutting board once. This recipe cooks quickly, so all the ingredients should be ready to go before you heat the pan.
  2. Prep the ingredients beforehand, so you only have to spend 10-15 minutes cooking the dish when you're ready to eat.
  3. Serve directly from the pan for easy clean up alongside crusty bread, boiled potatoes, rice pilaf, or steamed vegetables.

Sides

Seafood Recipes

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Calamari Puttanesca

If you're looking for something to do with calamari besides deep frying it, try this racy recipe filled with juicy olives, fresh cherry tomatoes, and briny capers. The classic southern Italian puttanesca sauce is ideal for making an exciting and easy calamari dish that takes under 15 minutes to cook.
Course Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian
Diet Gluten Free, Low Fat, Low Lactose
Keyword fun appetizers, healthy mains
Servings 4
Calories 257kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 lb calamari cleaned and cut into 1-2" rings

Aromatics

  • 2 Tb olive oil
  • 2 teaspoon minced garlic about 2 large cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes add more if you like it spicy
  • 2 ea anchovies or 1 ½ teaspoon of anchovy paste
  • 1 Tb tomato paste

Vegetables

  • 2 c halved cherry tomatoes or canned chopped tomatoes
  • ¾ c pitted olives roughly chopped into big chunks, mix of green and black is nice
  • 1 Tb capers

Seasoning

  • c white wine See Note 1 for substitute
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 2 Tb chopped parsley

Optional Garnishes

  • lemon wedges for garnish
  • salt to taste for me this is a ½ teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt

Instructions

  • To clean the squid, separate the legs from the tubes. Pull the clear 'needle' from the tube and push out any guts with the back blade of a knife. Slice the tubes into about 1" rings. Cut off the knobby round bone holding the legs together. Trim off that one extra, long leg that every squid has for some reason.
  • Put the garlic and olive oil in a cold pan. Put the pan on the stove over medium heat to gently heat the garlic without browning.
  • Once the garlic starts to sizzle, add the red chili flakes, anchovies, and tomato paste. Stir to break up the anchovies a little bit for about 10-30 seconds.
  • Add the cherry tomatoes, olives, and capers. Stir for about a minute or two to let the vegetables develop flavor with the oil.
  • Add the white wine. Bring the mixtures to a simmer and cook for about 2-3 minutes to let the wine reduce and burn off the alcohol.
  • Stir in the squid. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook just until the squid pieces start to turn bright white, curl, and are firm when pinched. This will only take about 1-3 minutes depending how hot your burner is. Do not overcook or the squid will be chewy.
  • Turn off the heat, and stir in the chopped parsley and lemon zest. Serve hot directly from the pan for easy clean up. Or serve alongside crusty bread, boiled potatoes, rice pilaf, or steamed vegetables

Notes

This recipe serves 4 as an appetizer or 2-3 as a main course. 
    1. If you don't have white wine, you can use rose or red wine. If you don't want to use wine at all, use ⅓ c water and 1 Tb fresh squeezed lemon juice. 
    2. Mis en place: Chop all the vegetables first, wipe down the cutting board, and then pull out the calamari from the fridge to clean and cut it. Then you only have to wash the cutting board once. This recipe cooks quickly, so all the ingredients should be ready to go before you heat the pan.
    3. Prep the ingredients beforehand, so you only have to spend 10-15 minutes cooking the dish when you're ready to eat.
  1.  
Recipe inspired by Ciao Italia's Spaghetti Puttanesca by Maryann Esposito. 

Nutrition

Calories: 257kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 265mg | Sodium: 546mg | Potassium: 544mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 771IU | Vitamin C: 27mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @agiletestkitchen or tag #agiletestkitchen!

Food safety

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

I saw that.

Karma

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