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Calamaretti with salsa aglio

Calamaretti with salsa aglio

“Would you please ask the team at Canberra’s Italian and Sons to share the recipe for their wonderful calamaretti with salsa aglio? It is simply delicious.”
Tracey Di Marco, Breakfast Point, NSW

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Calamaretti with salsa aglio

Serves 4
Cooking Time Prep time 15 mins, cook 1 hr
For deep-frying:   vegetable oil
150 ml   extra-virgin olive oil
To serve:   juice of 2 lemons, plus wedges
600 gm   small calamari, cleaned and scored, cut into 5cm pieces
For dusting:   seasoned plain flour
2 bunches   small rocket, trimmed
Salsa aglio
2 tbsp   extra-virgin olive oil
1   small floury potato, such as sebago, coarsely chopped
½   onion, coarsely chopped
90 gm   young garlic, coarsely chopped (see note)
250 ml   (1 cup) vegetable stock
70 gm   mascarpone


1 For salsa aglio, heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add potato and onion, sauté until starting to soften (5-7 minutes). Add garlic, stir occasionally until starting to soften (4-5 minutes). Add stock, reduce heat to low, simmer until potato is very soft (30-40 minutes), remove from heat, cool slightly. Process in a food processor until just smooth, season to taste, fold through mascarpone and set aside.
2 Whisk olive oil and lemon juice in a small bowl, season to taste and set aside.
3 Preheat oil in a deep-fryer or deep-sided frying pan to 200C. Dust calamari in seasoned flour, shake off excess and deep-fry in batches until golden (2-3 minutes). Drain on absorbent paper, season to taste and serve hot with salsa aglio and rocket drizzled with dressing.

Note Young garlic is available from select greengrocers. If unavailable, use half the amount of regular garlic.

This recipe is from the January 2010 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

RECIPE Italian and Sons, Canberra PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Dearnley STYLING Geraldine Munoz and Alice Storey

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