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

Calories 257kcal

Author Agile Test Kitchen

Equipment

1 skillet at least 10 inches

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

⅔ 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.

Recipe inspired by Ciao Italia's Spaghetti Puttanesca by Maryann Esposito.

Nutrition