Antipasti-Style Calamari Salad

When done right, calamari can be a seductive, tender, delicately ocean-flavored vehicle for bright, pungent, spicy, and otherwise bold flavors. For example, I love the Thai-style calamari salad with fish sauce, lime, cilantro, chilis, and garlic in Paul Johnson’s Fish Forever.

One recent night though, I had a craving for traditional southern Italian (or American) antipasti flavors in a calamari salad.  It was easy enough to make up on the fly. The hardest part is cleaning it. Instructions here.  The important thing is not to overcook it. Literally a 60 second dunk in boiling water does the trick.

This recipe makes enough for a side dish or appetizer for two

3/4 pound calamari

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon capers

About 1/4 cup chopped olives of your choice

1/4 bulb of fennel, sliced thinly

1 green garlic or 1 small clove of mature garlic, chopped finely

About 1/4 cup diced tomatoes, or halved cherry tomatoes (if not in season, use equivalent of canned tomatoes

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

A pinch of pepper flakes

Salt to taste (if needed)

Clean the squid using the instructions here. Make sure to rinse well.

In a medium bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Set aside.

Bring a medium pot of salted water to boil. Add the cleaned calamari. As soon as the water returns to a boil, turn it off and cover it for one minute. Drain and rinse calamari in cool water. Shake off excess water and add to the bowl with the dressing.

Stir well and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, or up to one hour before serving. May be refrigerated and brought to room temperature before serving. Taste and adjust for salt.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogplay
This entry was posted in healthy, seafood and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

2 Comments

  1. Posted June 23, 2012 at 5:09 pm | Permalink

    Vanessa, this looks so scrumptious! I’m putting it on our menu soon! Thank you for sharing.

    • Posted June 25, 2012 at 6:13 pm | Permalink

      thanks for stopping by Lindsey. I hope you like it!

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

  • Buy My Books



  • Shop Chronicle Books

    Cookbook

  • Archives


  • Categories


  • Connect with Vanessa

    Twitter Facebook RSS

    Enter your email address to
    receive my blog posts via email:
    Delivered by FeedBurner

  • Copyright Information

    The recipes and images on this site belong to Vanessa Barrington. Feel free to link here and if you’d like to use a recipe or image, please ask permission first. Thank you.