Monday, January 26, 2009

Calamari Stew with Garlic Toast

One of the things on my 101 list was to cook with other seafoods besides shrimp. I really like a lot of different kinds of seafood, but shrimp is so accessible and relatively affordable for me which is why I use it so much. However, the last few weeks, I noticed the seafood vendor at the farmers market has been carrying cleaned calamari for about 5 bucks a pound. I couldn't pass it up. When I was young, the thought of eating calamari really grossed me out. I think it's because we had to dissect them in biology class. Luckily, I grew out of that and now I really enjoy it. Of course, I love the fried appetizer, but in the interest of keeping things lighter, I wanted to go with a recipe where the calamari wasn't fried. I found a few recipes that looked interesting, but as I was watching Food Network on Saturday (which is becoming increasingly infuriating with all the lame new hosts), I saw this recipe on a repeat of Giada that I knew I wanted to try first. This is a very simple recipe and really fast. It's actually probably a good idea to make the toasts first so that they are ready by the time the stew is done which is less than 10 minutes. I used a jarred roasted garlic tomato sauce which I had leftover from the turkey meatballs, so I didn't spend too much time trying to infuse garlic into the oil because there was already so much garlic flavor in the sauce. As I said, this is really delicious, but I am glad I am not eating it today. I just learned from Jaden that it's bad luck to eat squid on the Chinese New Year. Wait until tomorrow to try this!

Calamari Stew with Garlic Toast
(Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

For the stew:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, cut in 1/2
3/4 cups tomato sauce
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Small pinch salt
Small pinch freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound calamari (squid), bodies thinly sliced and tentacles whole

For the toast:

2 slices of bread
Olive oil, for brushing
1 clove garlic

For the Calamari Stew: Warm the olive oil over medium heat in a medium pot. Add the garlic and let cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove the garlic. Add the tomato sauce, white wine, thyme, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the calamari and stir to combine. Continue to cook until the mixture comes back up to a simmer, about 2 more minutes. Serve immediately with the Garlic Toasts.

For the Garlic Toast: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (I used the toaster oven).

Meanwhile, brush the bread slices with olive oil. Toast until the bread is crisp and turning golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and rub the top of the toasts with whole garlic cloves. Serve immediately with the Calamari Stew.

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15 comments:

Erica said...

Thats a good goal (cooking with different seafood varieties). I'm not much for the calamari- too rubbery for me! I love toast dipped in soup though :)Stinks that hot salad man wasn't there this weekend. Whats up with that!

Kana said...

With LOTS of garlic bread to sopping up all that sauce. I have come to enjoy Giada's recipes...

Reeni said...

I've never eaten Calamari any way except fried. But I would try this, at least once! I was thinking the same thing this past Saturday-about the hosts. I'm sad over it. That channel is on more than any other, or was, times are changing.

Diana said...

Ugh - dissecting squid was the worst! The bio room would always smell horrendous that day!

Olga said...

YUM! Love calamari, but have never cooked it.
I can't even imagine having to disect it.

Have you ever tried to cook salmon or tilapia? Those are so easy. Let me know if you want some ideas ;)

Esi said...

Erica, you crack me up!

Reeni, don't even get me started on the Neelys!!

Diana, I totally hated the dissecting and then they would try to get us to write messages with the ink. Gross!

Olga, the calamari was really easy. Especially since it was already cleaned, all I had to do was slice it. I really love tilapia and have cooked with it a couple of times, but YES, send me ideas :)

vanillasugarblog said...

dissecting squid, frogs and whatever else in class was gross. do they still do that nowadays?
anywho, this looks good; I like that you have garlic bread to sop up the sauce...mmm

Heather said...

ahhhh. i looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove calamari. so, so so much. this sounds great, i love the garlic toast!

Sharon said...

Too funny - I thought of Jaden's post when I saw this! I'm the same way with being a shrimp-a-holic kind of cook. I need to free myself from my addiction to cooking shrimp and chicken ;)

The Food Librarian said...

This looks soooo good. I love calamari!!

Hayley said...

My roommate would love this. I just bookmarked it to surprise her with. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Calamari is only tender when cooked for 2 minutes or for 1 hour. Anything in between will produce rubbery calamari.

pigpigscorner said...

That looks amazing! I would love to have it with rice!

Summer said...

I love calamari, but it's something I've never made at home. I'll have to try it.

Unknown said...

Thanks to sharing. I love it and want to make by Best Toaster Oven.