Stuffed Calamari in the Malaga Style

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The recipe I used comes from the delicious cookbook The Popular Cuisine of Málaga, by historian and gastronomist Fernando Rueda García. Preparing stuffed squid is a bit labor-intensive, as you have to make the filling, stuff the squid, fry them, prepare the sauce, and finally braise the squid in it. If you find it daunting, I suggest splitting the preparation into two days: make the filling one day (it comes together quickly), stuff the squid, set them aside, and prepare the sauce and braise them on the day you plan to serve them.

Mr. Teodoro Bardají mentions in his book The Cooking of Women that after cleaning the squid, you can turn the body inside out like a glove; this way, you avoid having to seal them with a toothpick, but it’s not always easy to do without breaking them; you need to be very careful. As José Carlos Capel explains here, squid, baby squid, and cuttlefish have two cooking methods: if you’re just going to sauté or grill them, they become tender in less than two or three minutes. After that, they toughen up, and you need to stew them for at least 30 minutes to soften them again.

Difficulty: Stuffing the squid with care

Ingredients

For 4 people

2 large squid or 4 medium (800-900 g total)
300 g minced pork
2 cloves of garlic
Parsley to taste
50 g pine nuts
1 egg
Bread crumbs
Ground black pepper
All-purpose flour for breading
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
200 ml white wine (or sweet muscat wine)
A pinch of saffron threads
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
300 ml water or fish broth

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine the minced meat with finely chopped parsley and garlic, half of the pine nuts, the egg, and enough breadcrumbs to form a consistent paste for stuffing. Season with salt and pepper.

Stuff the squid with this mixture, not completely full because they shrink while cooking. Seal the opening of each squid with a toothpick.

Dredge them in flour and fry them in a little olive oil. Set aside.

Add a bit more oil and sauté the chopped onion.

When the onion is translucent, lay the stuffed and fried squid over the sauté, add the bay leaf, wine, the remaining pine nuts, the crushed saffron, and the water or broth. Season lightly with salt.

Braise the squid for about an hour, turning them once. Use a toothpick to check if they are tender (cook a bit longer if they are not tender, of course).

Remove the squid and let them cool slightly (the cut will be much cleaner if you let them cool completely). Heat the sauce again and pour it over the slices of stuffed squid.

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