Sautéed Calamari

 

Sautéed Calamari

The first time I ever had calamari was in tiny Italian restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant was diner style with a single row of small tables against the wall and a row of counter seats. Behind the counter were Italian brothers cooking the Italian dishes right there in front of customers. I saw calamari in marinara sauce on the menu and that's what I ordered. I can still taste that dish, the sauce was so delicious. The woman next to me asked, what is that, I said calamari, it's real good. She said she might order that. Then she saw the tentacles and asked, what are those? I said those are the tentacles of the octopus. She didn't order the calamari. I guess calamari sounds non descript, octopus not so much, never mind tentacles.

 

You now know, calamari doesn't have to be fried. This package of calamari didn't have tentacles included. I decided on a sautéed calamari Mediterranean style dish with roasted peppers, black Kalamata olives, capers, a sautéed shallot, parsley, pepper flakes, and a bit of oyster sauce with a few green onions as a garnish on top. It was very delicious. One thing to keep in mind about calamari, either cook it real fast or very slow, in-between it will be rubbery. I challenge you to sauté some calamari with ingredients which might complement the dish. Next time I'm going to cook calamari in a marinara sauce, reminiscent of the first calamari I had in San Francisco.