Puff pastry shells with squid salad are a very cute idea to serve as an appetizer in a different way than usual. It is a perfect dish for a thousand occasions: Sunday lunches, fish dinners with friends, special occasions like Christmas or New Year.
Beautiful to look at and you’ll make a great impression, plus they’re delicious to eat fresh and crispy. Accompany them with ingredients of your choice (in my case, a squid salad, but you can vary as you like).
I find it a delightful idea, don’t you?
Just like when preparing Parmesan baskets, you can prepare these salted puff pastry shells (but you can also try with Brise pastry), for which you’ll need shell molds, and then fill them as you like.
Squid are mollusks that can be used for preparing various dishes, from a salad enjoyed as an appetizer or main course to a second course with stuffed squid.
Unlike calamari, squid are less prized and more economical, making them perfect, for example, for a light lunch prepared at home.
For cooking the squid, our recipe suggests covering them in cold unsalted water, boiling them for 10 minutes from the boiling point, and once cooked, letting them cool in their broth.
To enjoy them in a salad, the squid bodies should be cut into rings, while the tentacles are chopped. Combine them with parsley, olives, lemon, season and serve!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 8
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 320.27 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 19.78 (g) of which sugars 1.11 (g)
- Proteins 11.13 (g)
- Fat 22.16 (g) of which saturated 3.58 (g)of which unsaturated 13.50 (g)
- Fibers 0.80 (g)
- Sodium 634.42 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Puff Pastry Shells
- 1 puff pastry
- as needed milk
- 1 kg squid (fresh but frozen is also fine)
- 1 lemon (juice)
- as needed extra virgin olive oil
- black olives (optional)
- 1 bunch parsley
- Half clove garlic (optional)
- peppers in oil (red optional)
- salt
Tools
- Baking Dishes
- 8 Molds
- Pot
- Bowl
- Ceramic Balls
- Parchment Paper
- Brush
Steps for Puff Pastry Shells
Take the scallop shells, wash them and dry them well.
Roll out a prepared puff pastry roll.
Cut pieces large enough to cover the inner part of the shells.
Brush the inside of the shells with oil, then place the pastry pieces over them, shaping them very well.Cover with small pieces of parchment paper and insert ceramic baking beads. (If you don’t have the beads, use dried chickpeas)
(This way, it doesn’t puff up while baking).
(If you don’t have scallop shells, shape the pastry as you wish)
Brush with a little milk, then bake for about 5-6 minutes in a preheated ventilated oven at 392°F.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely before detaching from the shells, so they don’t break.Gut the squid; remove the beak and eyes; detach the tentacle clusters from the bodies.
(With your hands, remove the head, extract the transparent cartilage. Rinse thoroughly under running water to remove any remaining innards. Remove the skin and the two side fins. Rinse well and on a cutting board, slice them into rings).
Place the bodies and tentacles in a large saucepan, cover them with cold unsalted water and boil for 10 minutes from the boiling point, then turn off and let them cool in their broth.
Drain the squid, cut the bodies into rings, chop the tentacles, and place everything in a small bowl.
Prepare the dressing. In a small bowl, put the finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, a little salt, two tablespoons of oil, and the filtered juice of the lemon.
At this point, we compose the squid salad, combine the squid and the halved olives in a bowl, season with the dressing.To make it more colorful, I added julienne-cut peppers in oil.
Mix well and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Take the shells; they must be very cold.
Remove the squid salad from the fridge and fill the shells.
Use a spoon to fill the shells.
Decorate to your taste and pleasure!
Enjoy your meal.
Tips
You can prepare the shells a day in advance and store them.
The same for the squid salad, keep it in the fridge in an airtight container.
Depending on the preparation, squid have either a short or a long cooking time. For salad, about 15 minutes are enough, while for stewed squid, at least 30 minutes are needed.
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Storage
Squid is a highly perishable food. If freshness is not guaranteed, it is advisable to buy it frozen.
The storage of fresh or thawed squid should be in the refrigerator, on the shelf dedicated to meat and fish, or at the lowest possible temperatures. If the temperature or storage time is excessive, squid acquire an unpleasant sulfur odor; although not entirely related to bacterial growth, this issue renders the food inedible.
