The first dish I ever cooked for my husband was Tiella and the first dish his family taught me to cook was stuffed calamari. When I saw a variation of this recipe in an old Italian cookbook I quickly adapted it to represent a marriage of our families’ favorite recipes. I made this dish for his 40th birthday party and it was a great success. Tiella is a traditional Calabrian layered vegetable casserole named for the ceramic “Tiella” dish it is baked in. In north central West Virginia, which has a large Calabrese population, this popular dish is cooked with ground meat and sausage. Like spaghetti sauce ,each family generally has its own variation.
Calamari in Tiella
Stuffing:
2 cups bread crumbs
2 large eggs
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese
20 medium squid (2 packages)
Tiella:
1 medium onion
2 cloves of minced
1 can plum tomatoes
2 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley
Small pinch of baking soda
1 ½ pounds potatoes sliced
Salt/pepper
2 Zucchini sliced
½ grated Romano cheese
1-2 teaspoons of hot pepper flakes
To make the stuffing, soak the bread in a small bowel of warm water for 5 min. Drain and squeeze dry. Blend the bread with eggs, garlic, cheese, parsley, and baking soda in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Stuff the squid with the stuffing. Do not fill all the way as the stuffing will expand. Arrange the, potatoes, onions, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes and parsley in layers on the bottom of a ceramic casserole dish. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange stuffed squid on top of vegetable layers. Sprinkle with pecorino cheese, hot pepper flakes and drizzle with olive oil. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for an hour.
Calamari in Tiella sounds absolutely delicious! Please tell me that it's okay to keep the purple skin on the squid - after all, that's where the flavor resides. All too often it's removed, especially in Fried Calamari, rendering it a generic status.
Auguri a tutti quanti di un Prospero Anno Nuovo
Posted by: Dominic | December 27, 2007 at 04:53 PM