Stuffed Calamari

My friend at work made these incredible stuffed calamari once, and I thought I'd try something akin to it tonight, but I also added a few twists since I have been craving pasta lately.

1 lbs of squid, whole, cleaned and tentacles removed

Stuffing:
One lemon, zest and juice
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 scallions, chopped finely
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried basil
4 spanish anchovy filets, chopped finely with a little of the oil
One egg
Chopped calamari tentacles

Salt, pepper and olive oil to taste

Turn oven to 350 degrees.

Cleaning squid: This is perhaps the most time consuming part of preparing the dish. The tentacles and head can easily be pulled apart from the squid body. Pull out the sharp cartilage spine from the inside the body as well as any residual "guts" of the squid. Cut off the head/eyes from the tentacles and pull out the beak if it is still intact in the tentacles' portion. Pull off the outer speckled membrane on the body of the squid as you would a membrane on a hardboiled egg. Rinse the squid thoroughly after "cleaning" and squeeze some lemon juice. Set aside.



Mix stuffing ingredients together with a healthy amount of salt and pepper. Stuff into calamari bodies and brush olive oil over each stuffed calamari. Put in the oven on a cookie tray and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the calamari shrinks and turns golden.



I boiled some fresh spinach pasta, and stewed some diced tomatoes with some dried Italian spices and a bay leaf. Once the pasta was cooked, I topped it with the tomatoes and three of the calamari, squeezed some lemon juice on it, added a little more salt and pepper, and voila!