Have you ever heard the dialectal expression “ammutta a muddica“? A saying made in Sicily, behind which there is a world! Literally, it means push the crumb, usually used to encourage someone during difficult and crisis moments, but it finds its origins in Sicilian popular tradition, involving cooking and what Sicilians do best: ammuddicare everything and stuff, pushing, with breadcrumbs! This tradition of Sicilian sayings is rich with phrases like this, drawing inspiration from daily life and especially good food, but sooner or later I will talk more about this! But let’s get back to us and today’s recipe, which indeed recalls the aforementioned dialectal expression. It’s about stuffed calamari, but with what? Breadcrumbs, of course, and not only! The stuffing is indeed rich and special, made with typical Mediterranean ingredients like pine nuts, raisins, cherry tomatoes, and capers, just to name a few. There are different versions of Sicilian stuffed calamari that I hope to show you gradually, so you can choose the one that best suits your taste! The secret for the perfect recipe to avoid the stuffing from coming out is one for sure: don’t ammuttar too much a muddica, meaning don’t overfill them, because the risk is that the calamari sacs, which tend to shrink during cooking, might break! Otherwise, making them will be a breeze, and you can present them as part of your holiday menus because tasty and traditional dishes like this are very suitable! A must for us Sicilians with an unmistakable aroma and mouth-watering!
For seafood lovers, I leave you some links to recipes with calamari where you can fully satisfy your desire for the sea:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stove, Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients:
- 4 calamari (medium)
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/8 cup salted capers
- 4 fillets anchovies in oil
- 1 cup cups breadcrumbs
- 3 tbsps white wine
- 1 orange juice
- 2 sprigs parsley
- 2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil (+ as needed)
- as needed salt
- as needed white pepper
Tools:
⚠ THIS RECIPE CONTAINS ONE OR MORE AFFILIATE LINKS. The products I recommend are the same ones I use in my recipes; purchasing them through my blog helps support me and my work, while it won’t cost you any extra!
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- Paper towel
- 1 Pan
- 1 Ladle
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Baking sheet
- 1 Parchment paper
- 4 Toothpicks
Steps:
First, proceed to clean the mollusks, gently extracting the intestines without puncturing the flesh, removing the gladius, or “bone,” the eyes, and the beak hidden within the tentacles. Then, wash the calamari abundantly under running water.
Dry them by patting them with a paper towel and finely chop the tentacles and outer fins with a knife.
Take care of the cherry tomatoes: after rinsing them under running water, cut them into wedges.
In a non-stick pan, lightly brown the garlic clove slightly crushed with the extra virgin olive oil and anchovy fillets over low heat. Once they have melted, add the capers, previously desalted under running water and well-drained.
Add the cherry tomatoes, chopped tentacles, and deglaze with white wine, raising the heat to evaporate the alcohol.
Once the alcohol has evaporated, lower the heat and add the pine nuts and raisins, previously soaked in warm water and drained.
Finally, dry it all with a bit of breadcrumbs.
Lightly toast it, stirring frequently, then adjust with salt and pepper and turn off the heat.
Flavor with fresh parsley coarsely broken by hand and another generous drizzle of oil to make the mixture more compact.
Take the calamari and stuff them, pressing with a spoon but being careful not to overfill and break the sac.
Seal them then with a toothpick at the opening to ensure the filling does not spill out.
Subsequently, place everything on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle the surface with a thread of oil and bake the mollusks at 375°F for 20′. After this time, add the orange juice and the rest of the breadcrumbs left over and continue cooking for another 5’*.
Once they are perfectly gratinated, take them out and serve them sliced with a side dish of your choice.
And voila… your Sicilian baked stuffed calamari are ready to be enjoyed!
Bon Appétit from La Cucina di FeFè!
Storage
👉 Sicilian baked stuffed calamari can be stored for 1-2 days maximum in the fridge inside containers, preferably glass, suitable for refrigeration.
Tips, notes, variations, and suggestions
🟣* Cooking time may vary depending on the oven’s performance and the mollusks’ size. Generally, it is advisable to pay attention not to prolong cooking too much, which would make the calamari meat tough and the stuffing dry.
Sicilian stuffed calamari lend themselves to many variations: one of these is the addition of a handful of black olives, or instead of fresh cherry tomatoes, you can add some dried tomatoes.
