How to Make Messina-Style Fried Calamari.
Calamari and squid, the big dilemma: frying. Some use egg and some don’t, some use rice flour and some don’t. Today I want to show you how we do it in Messina.
First of all, I don’t remove the skin, and this applies to all types of preparations of these mollusks.
Recently, even great chefs have reevaluated this habit of ours because the skin releases a particular sea flavor to the dish, and when it cooks, it becomes so thin that it doesn’t bother the palate.
Another very important thing is that we dip the rings in egg.
Finally, the flour must be durum wheat semolina flour.

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Cost: Very Cheap
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: Frying
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All Seasons

1,459.96 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 1,459.96 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 30.75 (g) of which sugars 0.43 (g)
Proteins 15.84 (g)
Fat 145.11 (g) of which saturated 15.77 (g)of which unsaturated 122.66 (g)
Fibers 0.00 (g)
Sodium 419.37 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 135 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

1.1 lbs calamari (or cleaned squid with skin.)
1 egg
2 1/2 cups re-milled durum wheat semolina flour
to taste salt
4 1/4 cups sunflower seed oil (or as much as your fryer holds)

Tools

What we need

Cutting Board
Knife
3 Bowls
Paper Towels
Pan or fryer
Colander

Preparation: How to Make Messina-Style Fried Calamari

For this recipe, you can use either calamari or squid, preferably fresh, but frozen is fine too, because being bloodless, they preserve well.
Remove the head and keep the tentacles, which you should cut 3 by 3. Make rings about 1/4 inch thick.
After washing them, let them drain in a colander.
Beat the egg in a bowl and dip the squid or calamari.
Drain the excess egg and then pass them in the durum wheat semolina flour.
Shake off the excess flour and continue like this for all the squid or calamari.
Now you must decide whether to use the pan or the fryer.
In both, the oil should be seed oil, preferably sunflower.
Bring the oil to the highest temperature; otherwise, the frying will be soggy and not crispy, but at the same time, it should not darken.
Immerse the mollusks in medium quantities; otherwise, the oil temperature drops too much.
At this point, both in the pan and the fryer, there will be a whirl of oil, that’s fine, everything is okay.
Cook until golden, about 5 minutes.
Scoop them with a slotted spoon and let the excess oil drain on a sheet of paper towel, where you will add the salt.
Serve immediately piping hot, here’s How to Make Messina-Style Fried Calamari, golden and very tasty.