Italian Fried Calamari

Elena Butuc

Holidays pass but we are left with many beautiful memories, including culinary. It's food with the aroma and taste of the sea, which you can prepare at home at any time during the year. Fried calamari or calamari fritti are our favorites on holidays at the sea. We like to eat them in this particular way - fried fresh, not thawed nor rings cooked in unsafe looking coating.

I'm showing you below not only the frying method, but also how to clean fresh squid bought from safe sources. There is nothing complicated, just be careful that when you buy the squid, it smells nicely of sea, not of rotten fish.

This recipe follows the Italian recipe, which I think is the simplest and most correct, because it brings out the wonderful taste of seafood. You can also fry other favorite seafood in this way - shrimp, clam meat, small fish etc. Serve plain with salt and a few drops of lemon juice, I assure you they are absolutely delicious, they are never enough for us ...

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Ingredients

Metric US

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Fresh squid

1 kg

take whole squids, medium/large sized, with tentacles

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White flour

300 g

I prefer to use semolina durum wheat flour, Italian, for a more obvious crunch

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Peanut oil

1 l

or choose any other frying oil with high smoke point you prefer

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Salt

0.5 tsp

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Lemon

0.5 pieces

Step by step

I found medium-sized squid. This is a whole squid, before being cleaned.

It has a tube-shaped front body with two small fins and short tentacles at the back.

Gently pull the area with tentacles and break it away from the body. Hold the tube of the squid in the other hand.

Put the tentacles aside for now. Use your fingers to remove the inside and also a kind of glassy straw.

You can cut the tube lengthwise, to remove the inside more easily, but that way you won't have those classic squid rings. It's only a visual thing, though, so do what works best for you.

Then remove that thin red-brown skin from the body with a knife.

I've seen versions where this is not cleaned, but probably for smaller squids, where it's not yet very thick.

Now we are dealing with the tentacles. Cut the end with the eyes.

Turn over and notice there is still left a small bone ring right in the middle of the tentacles. Press lightly with your finger and it will come out by itself, discard.

You can divide into pieces of two or three tentacles each, if they are not too small and thin.

When you finish cleaning all the squids, rinse the tubes and the tentacles properly, in and out, under cold water.

Allow to drain in a colander.

Then cut each tube into rings about one cm wide.

What you see in the picture is a cleaned, washed and portioned squid, ready to be fried.

Pat dry all pieces of squid with paper towel or napkins. This way, we will remove the excess water for a crispier fried squid.

Pour the oil into a heavy-bottomed pan, a Dutch oven or even a saucepan with high sides.

Heat the oil as much as possible. A thermometer should be able to show over 190 degrees C. In this temperature, seafood browns quickly, without changing its taste and texture. For this reason, I recommend for frying oil with the highest smoke point.