Week 4: Calamari in Umido (braised squid with tomatoes)

And so we enter week 4, the first week that I cooked knowing that this personal resolution would turn into a blog (I wrote the previous posts retrospectively). Wanting to get the most out of my Pizza Pilgrims book, I scoured the pages for another recipe that would take me on journeys new. The weather was nice and after the heaviness of the Oxtail stew and the stodgy delight of the parmigiana, I decided to take a lighter dish in hand. 

Knowing that the local Morrisons usually had a good supply of fish and often had squid, I set out with the ingredients for this dish in mind. Sadly, Morrisons let me down. Luckily however, there's a fish monger's that's just round the corner (looks more like a closed down pound shop selling left-over goods from a freezer), and fresh squid they sold. I asked the chap to gut it for me but I think there was a breakdown in English communication because when I unwrapped the cephalopod mollusc, there was the whole thing in front of me. I went at it with a sharp knife, extracting black stuff and plastic-like cartilage, but if you'd like to see how it can be done more efficiently, watch this youtube video. Serves 4, although I only had half the required squid so it did me for two delicious lunches. You really need a good white wine with this one too.

·  1 onion, chopped	·  1 kg freshly cleaned squid
·  6 anchovy fillets	·  2 tins tomatoes
·  8 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole	·  Salt and pepper
·  Olive oil	·  Handful of chopped parsley
·  ½ glass of white wine	·  Juice of a lemon

In a large pan, gently fry the onions and garlic in some olive oil and add the anchovies. Once the onions have softened and the anchovies all but dissolved, pour in the wine and reduce it until the alcohol has cooked away.

Add the squid and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the tomatoes and salt and pepper.

Turn down the heat and simmer gently for at least an hour. For a gentler cook, do the above is a metal casserole pot and pop in the over at about 150ᵒc for an hour and a half. This option means you can also go out and do something while it’s cooking. Handy.

Cook until the squid is tender and the tomatoes have reduced to a rich sauce. Stir through the parsley and lemon juice and serve with fresh bread and/or spaghetti.

Note: When I first tried this, I wondered if some chilli would put a bit of a kick into it but then, on my third mouthful, I was transported to the coast of southern Italy, sitting outside a trattoria on a hot summer’s day, with the sun shining off the water and the sound of gentle, bubbling conversation around me. My recommendation: hold the chilli and transport yourself to a place in the sun!

Today’s learning:

Adding some anchovy fillets to a tomato sauce at the ‘onion softening stage’ adds wondrous depth  of flavour. Do try it. Please, really do!

Recipe adapted from: Elliot, J. & Elliot, T. (2013) Pizza Pilgrims. London: Harpercollins

Week 3: Parmigiana di Melanzone

Would you believe that I'd never cooked a parmigiana before? I feel a little embarrassed admitting this but, now that I have cooked one, I don't mind saying as much. If there's something that will put a smile on your face in the winter months, it's got to be a decent parmigiana. This one was adapted from a recipe in a present my brother Matt and his fiancee Rachael gave me, the Pizza Pilgrims book (full source at the bottom), although I'm told by Ri Willoughby that another amazing version can be found on the Guardian's 'How to cook the perfect...' website. This recipe serves 4 -6, depending on how much you want to gobble down and enjoy. It lasted me three sittings only (remains can be seen in the pic).

·  3 large aubergines	·  1 tbsp red wine vinegar (or red wine for a richer flavour)
·  Olive oil	·  Pinch of caster sugar
·  1 onion, finely chopped	·  Handful of basil leaves
·  1 clove of garlic, finely chopped	·  3 handfuls of grated parmesan
·  1 celery stalk, finely chopped	·  125g mozzarella, cut into bite-sized pieces
·  2 tins chopped tomatoes

Pre-heat the oven to 200ᵒC and top and tail your aubergines. Now slice into rounds about 5mm thick. There’s no need to skin them. When skinned it gets a bit too sloppy.

Brush the aubergine slices with oil and season with salt and pepper – use a griddle pan to get the ‘charred marks’ on them; this is also better than cooking in a normal pan where the aubergines will just soak up litres of oil if you let them. Well, maybe not litres, but you get the idea. Griddle the slices until they’ve got a good colour and are soft, then set aside.

In a large pan, soften the onion, garlic, and celery in a couple of tbp of oil. Do this on a low heat for up to 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, red wine vinegar (or red wine) and simmer for 10 minutes to bring the flavours together. Season and add basil. I couldn’t get hold of basil so just left it out. The final thing was still very tasty, though.

Now we can put the parmigiana together. Put a thin layer of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a pie/gratin dish, sprinkle over some parmesan, then some mozzarella (just dot some around), some pepper and then a layer of the aubergine slices. Repeat this process until you’ve used all your ingredients. If you’re lucky you’ll have enough for another small dish. Drizzle a little oil over the top and then pop in the oven for 30 minutes.

Eat straight away while bubbling hot with crusty bread and/or some fresh rocket or have it cold when you come in from the pub.

Today’s learning:
You don’t need to salt aubergines to draw the bitterness out – the bitterness has long since been bred out of them. You can also bake the aubergines before cooking them, but griddling them is better. Brushing with oil and putting in a griddle pan will use far less oil than putting oil in a normal frying pan and cooking them that way.

Recipe adapted from: Elliot, J. & Elliot, T. (2013) Pizza Pilgrims. London: Harpercollins