Stuffed Calamari | Calamari Ripieni
I’ve grown up living with my mum, who hates cooking with a passion. We’ve never had an oven because mum thought it wasn’t an essential kitchen appliance. In her defense, she knows all the tricks on how to use a microwave and knows all the places that sell the best frozen and ready to eat meals.
Somehow though, cooking has always been one of my biggest passions and, if I can cook, I can probably thank my survival spirit.
In my first Australian year, house-sharing, I’ve had to survive on sushi rolls, salads and anything that didn’t require using the kitchen because, very rarely, pots, pans and appliances were washed properly, and I was working too many hours to have the energy to wash before and after cooking.
When I moved to my own place in Canberra, in November 2011, that’s when I was finally able to put my passion into practice with my very own clean kitchen, including a real oven.
I generally cook Italian due to my background and I like to test other people’s recipes, adding my own twist. I am a proud owner of a Thermomix TM6, I am time poor most days, so you’ll see that I tend to use the Thermy when possible, if it can save me some time.
I’ve been seeing a lot of people attempting to cook whole calamari that always end up exploding so, when yesterday I went to our local seafood shop and they had some fresh calamari, I decided that it was time to face that demon and try myself.
This is when you place your bet and guess if my calamari exploded. Keep reading to find out.
Stuffed calamari cooked in the Varoma (Thermomix version)
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 60 minutes
Quantity: 4 people
Ingredients
- 4 whole medium sized calamari
- 1 onion
- 70gr extra virgin olive oil – I like to use the Italian brand ‘Monini’
- 40gr bread crumb
- 35gr Parmigiano Reggiano
- 1 clove of garlic
- 50gr white wine or lemon juice
- 300gr water
- salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Get the calamari ready, wash them thoroughly, cut the tentacles and set them aside;
- Cut the onion in 4 and add to the mixing bowl, 5 seconds/speed 6;
- Clear the sides of the bowl from the onion with the spatula, add 40gr of EVO and cook for 4 minutes/100C/speed 1;
- Add the tentacles and cook for 4 minutes/100C/speed 1;
- Add the breadcrumb and Parmigiano to the bowl and mix for 30 seconds/speed 1;
- With the help of a teaspoon fill the calamari only 3/4 full and seal each calamari with a toothpick. Now listen to me carefully: it’s really important that you don’t fill them completely, otherwise they will explode while cooking;
- Put them on the Varoma tray and set them aside;
- Add the clove of garlic to the mixing bowl, 30gr of EVO and cook for 4 minutes/100C/speed 1;
- Add the wine, salt & pepper, and close the mixing bowl with the Varoma tray;
- Cook for 20 minutes/Varoma/speed 1;
- Serve the calamari with the sauce from the mixing bowl on the side.
I made 2 mistakes which I am sharing with you so that you won’t do the same: I had oh-so-much-stuffing so I filled mine entirely and, of course, they exploded (how many of you guessed it, ah?); I followed the original recipe and cooked them for 30 minutes, the calamari turned out over-cooked and chewy… I’d stick to 30 minutes for larger calamari, but I’d reduce the time to 20 minutes for medium sized calamari.
Buon appetito!
About The Author
alicebellavita
Hi! My name is Alice and I am Italian expat neo-mum living in Australia since 2011.