Stuffed calamari

This delicious stuffed calamari recipe is a southern Italian classic and a favourite of the chef Francesco Mazzei.

📝 Ingredients

• 20 medium squid, (around 1.6kg), cleaned and gutted but keep the tentacles (ask your fishmonger to do this for you)
• 120 g of frozen peas
• 3 egg whites
• 200 g of romano pepper, cut into 5mm dice
• 10 g of chives
• 20 sprigs of rosemary, optional
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 100 ml of white wine
• 250 ml of fish stock
• 300 g of white onion, very finely sliced
• 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 kg large ripe tomato
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 20 g of basil leaves
• sea salt

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1Begin by making the tomato sauce. Put the onion into a saucepan with half the oil and let it sweat slowly over a low-medium heat for around 15 minutes until it's soft (do not allow it to colour). If it looks as though it might catch, add a splash of water to the pan
2. 2Add the tomatoes and season with salt. Leave to simmer over a low heat for about 45 minutes, until the tomatoes are thick and rich, adding a little water if the level of the liquid gets too low. Remove from the heat
3. 3Put the remaining oil in another pan with the garlic and cook over a low-medium heat. When it's almost golden brown, add the basil leaves and stir. Pass the oil through a sieve into the cooked tomato sauce
4. 4Whisk the sauce to break up the tomatoes. If it's too thick, thin it with a little water, ideally some pasta cooking water. Pass the sauce through a wide-holed sieve resting over a bowl, and use the back of a ladle to extract the smooth mixture. Check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary
5. 5Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6
6. 6Blanch the peas in boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain well
7. 7Put 8 of the squid and the egg whites into a food processor and pulse until they are roughly chopped. Add the peppers, blanched peas and chives and continue to pulse until you have a coarse mixture
8. 8Use this mixture to stuff the remaining calamari, keeping some space free at the top. Place a piece of the tentacles at the end of the filling and close the calamari with a rosemary sprig or a toothpick
9. 9Trim the other end of each calamari to create a tiny hole and keep the filling from bursting out when cooking
10. 10Heat a large heatproof baking dish over a medium heat and fry the garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the calamari and fry for a couple of minutes until browned, then pour in the wine and let it evaporate over a medium-high heat
11. 11Add 400ml of the tomato sauce and the fish stock, then transfer to the oven for 20 minutes. You can check the filling is cooked through by sticking a toothpick in the centre of the filling; it should feel hot when you touch your lips. Serve immediately