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Stuffed squid with tomato sauce and pine nuts
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 12 small (about 600g) prepared squid tubes, with tentacles
- 3tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped
- 25g plus extra for serving pine nuts, toasted
- 1tsp sumac
- 1⁄2tsp chilli flakes, finely chopped
- 75g fresh coriander, leaves removed, keep a few for serving and roughly chop the rest
- 250g cooked (100g raw) basmati rice
- sea salt crystals
For the tomato sauce
- 1 head young garlic, broken into cloves, crushed to a paste
- 3tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 5 ripe tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and chopped
- 1⁄2tsp caster sugar
Method
If you stuff and chill the squid ahead of time, bring to room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking them.
First make the tomato sauce. Crush all the garlic to a paste with 1tsp of sea salt crystals and set aside. Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole, add the onion and fry until pale golden. Increase the heat and add 2tsp of the crushed garlic paste (the rest is for the stuffing) the tomatoes and any juices along with the sugar and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Simmer on a medium heat for about 10 minutes until thickened and set aside.
Put the tentacles in a dish and pull the wings off the body sacs and put the bodies in with the tentacles. Toss in a tbsp of the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Chop the wings finely and put aside in a separate bowl.
Heat a frying pan on a medium heat and add the onions and fry until just golden, about 6 minutes. Add the rest of the crushed garlic paste and the chopped wings and fry for 2 minutes. Roughly chop the toasted pine nuts and add to the pan with the sumac, chilli and roughly chopped coriander leaves, stir to wilt. Mix in the cooked rice and transfer to a dish to cool completely. Soak enough wooden cocktail sticks (1 per squid) in cold water for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Stuff each squid (don’t overfill) and thread one of the tentacles onto a cocktail stick then a stuffed squid, sealing the top closed as you go. Repeat with remainder.
Fry a few stuffed squid at a time in a little of the oil until golden, then add to the tomatoes in the casserole and cook in the oven for 15 minutes. To serve, lift onto a serving platter and scatter over the reserved coriander leaves and the extra pine nuts. Carefully remove the cocktail sticks before eating.
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