Erica De Mane

Recipe below: Braised Calamari with Sweet Spices

I’ve long had a fascination with Moroccan cooking, starting in the late seventies, when I first read Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, by the brilliant Paula Wolfert. I cooked my way through that book (my first bisteya, what a sloppy mess that was), and many of the dishes embedded themselves in my brain for further consideration. I’ve since often used aspects of Moroccan cuisine as inspiration for improvising with my Southern Italian cooking. Many of its spices and ingredients turn up naturally in Sicilian food, with the island’s legacy of Arab rule, so including Moroccan touches in, say, an eggplant parmigiano can be seamless, if I do it right.

My grandfather Errico, who died in his mid-forties, I unfortunately didn’t know, but he is supposed to have been a great cook and a professional pastry chef for a while (he evidently made beautifully decorated cassate). My mother said he often added cinnamon and bay leaf to his tomato sauces, and cinnamon instead of nutmeg to the filling of his Christmas Eve ravioli. I now do that. When I first had couscous in Trapani, a fish couscous, which is more common there than Morocco’s chicken or lamb ones, bay leaf and cinnamon were the spices. Other times I’ve noticed saffron. For this calamari dish I’ve gone with cinnamon, ginger, saffron, and thyme. The flavors easily meld together, blending smoothly with the sweet squid broth. I really like the way it came out.

A note about preparing saffron:

Saffron should be a nice pile of bright red, slightly moist threads when you buy it. If it’s already brittle and dark, it’s too old. To make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck, you’ll want to grind it to something like a powder. If you put moist saffron threads into a stew or braise, they won’t open up completely. They really need to be pulverized. You can’t easily grind moist saffron, so what I always do is put a small pan over medium heat and get it hot. Then I turn off the heat and add my saffron threads, just the ones I’m immediately using. I let them sit in the residual heat until they’ve stiffened up a bit, probably only a minute or so. Once they’ve lost some moisture, I find them easy to grind in a mortar and pestle. Then I can soak the ground saffron in a little warm water, to release its full fragrance.

Braised Calamari with Sweet Spices

(Serves 4)

2 pounds smallish calamari, cleaned and cut into rings, the tentacles cut in half (if you can only find really large squid, make this dish another time)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
Salt
A big pinch of sugar
Black pepper
Aleppo pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 shallots, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
½ cup dry Marsala
1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes, drained and well chopped
¾ cup chicken broth
A good pinch of saffron threads, dried, ground, and soaked in a little warm water (see note above)
7 or 8 large thyme sprigs, the leaves chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon runny honey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
A handful of basil leaves, lightly chopped
A palmful of blanched almonds, toasted and lightly chopped

Dry off the calamari well, and put it in a bowl. Sprinkle on half of both the cinnamon and the ginger. Add the sugar, some salt, black pepper, and a little Aleppo, and toss well.

Get out a wide, low-sided casserole or sauté pan fitted with a lid. Drizzle in a little olive oil, and when it’s hot, sauté the shallot over medium heat until it just starts to soften, about 3 minutes or so. Turn the heat up a notch, and add the calamari, spreading it out in the pan. Sprinkle the garlic on top, and sauté until the calamari turns opaque, about a minute or so. Add the Marsala, and let it bubble for about 30 seconds.

Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, saffron water, thyme, and cinnamon stick. Bring everything to a boil ,and then turn the heat to low, cover the pan, and simmer until the calamari is tender, about 45 minutes.

Uncover the pan, and add the honey and the butter. Taste for season, adding more salt, black pepper, or Aleppo pepper, if you think it needs it.

Right before serving, scatter on the almonds and basil.

I like to serve this with couscous or rice. I made the bigger Israeli-style couscous for it, flavoring it with a little butter and cinnamon.