Baby Bindery
Submitted to Elie Anderson, then a RISD student, for publication in her food journal, Supper. This has 362 words and is filed under: demo.

Squid in red pepper sauce

Posted by John Caserta on

This was something I put together one day for an appetizer, to go with fresh bread. Squid is in regular supply all year round at the farmer’s market, and although fresh tomatoes are nice, canned peeled tomatoes work really well, too.

Ingredients

2–4 cloves of garlic
2 red peppers
28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
1lb Squid
6-8oz Olive oil
  • 2-4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 red peppers
  • 1 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes or equivalent fresh peeled tomatoes. Put fresh tomatoes in water, boil and remove to remove peel easily
  • 1 pound of squid. You may clean yourself, but if cleaned, even better. But make sure you have the natural mix of tentacles and tubes
  • 6-8oz olive oil

Instructions

Put the olive oil in a cast iron dutch oven pot on medium heat. Smash garlic cloves to peel and place in olive oil. Take care that they don’t burn.

Add loosely chopped red peppers. No need to peel them. I cut them so that the pepper pieces are about half a finger length and about half an inch wide. Don’t dice them, you want them to be a part of the personality of the dish and should be on par with the squid in terms of size

Sautee the peppers until they’re soft. About 15 minutes. They shouldn’t burn or lose their peels. Otherwise the oil is too hot.

Cut the body of the squid into tubes or cut down them vertically to open them up and let them be pepper-sized pieces. The tentacles can be cut coarsely.

Add squid and tomatoes to pepper, olive oil and garlic mixture. Simmer for at least an hour. Water should be bubbling off, but it shouldn’t get too dry. The squid will become rubbery after a minute, and after about an hour become soft again. 1.5 to 2 hours can be a good total length. Lower heat if it’s drying out.

Great as a pasta sauce, but ideal served in a small bowl with bread to dip into it – or eaten with a small spoon.


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