Stuffed Calamari is a delicious and quick main course, perfect for all our special occasions, and they certainly can’t be missing for the Christmas holidays. Preparing stuffed calamari is very simple; we need small calamari, fresh, or frozen ones are also fine, if they are whole it’s better, so we can use the tentacles for the filling. I sauté the tentacles minced in a pan and add them to the filling, which makes it even more flavorful. For the filling, we can get creative, but a classic is the filling with bread crumbs flavored with parsley, garlic, and cheese of choice. I thought of enriching the filling of my stuffed calamari to be stewed with some boiled potatoes, and I must say that I managed to surprise everyone! I prepared this dish as an appetizer for my birthday, and it took me a while to write the recipe, but finally here I am, so you can try them too for Christmas.
Other Christmas recipes.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Slow Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients for Stuffed Calamari
- 8 calamari (small)
- 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 1 boiled potato
- 1 egg
- to taste parsley
- 1 clove garlic
- 0.7 oz grated cheese
- to taste bread crumbs
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- to taste olive oil
- 1 glass white wine
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Pan
- 8 Toothpicks
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
Steps for Preparing Stuffed Calamari
1. Prepare the calamari. First, clean the calamari. Empty them, peel them, then move on to the tentacles, cut below the eye level, and peel the tentacle clusters a bit. Wash under running water. Mince the tentacle clusters.
2. Sauté the dry tentacles in a hot pan with a little garlic. Just sauté briefly and then transfer them to a bowl.
3. Add to the bowl the crumbled bread crumbs, if fresh it doesn’t need to be soaked, if harder soak a little and squeeze well. Add a mixture of parsley and garlic, cheese, and a boiled potato mashed while still hot. Add an egg, a little salt and pepper, and mix, adjusting the consistency of the mixture with some more bread crumbs, without overdoing it.
4. Stuff the calamari 2/3 full with our filling. Close each calamari with a toothpick. Poke the base of the calamari so they don’t crack during cooking. Be careful not to overfill any filling, otherwise, it will spill out during cooking, as the filling itself increases in volume, and the calamari tend to shrink.
5. For cooking our stuffed calamari, I chose to stew them in a pan with a lid, so add a bit of olive oil to the pan, heat it, and brown our calamari, turning them in the hot oil, then deglaze with a bit of wine, and finally add some water and continue cooking, optionally adding another clove of garlic and a small pinch of salt. Cook on low heat for a good half hour or possibly longer depending on the calamari.
6. As soon as the calamari are tender, we can turn off the heat and serve our stuffed calamari, you’ll see how good they are, try them for Christmas; it will be a success.
If there are leftovers, they can be stored in the fridge tightly closed for a couple of days, and they can be quickly reheated in the microwave, oven, or even in a pan with a splash of water.
