Where does Calamares en su tinta come from?
Calamares en su tinta is a dish elaborated with pieces of calamari (tentacles included), that are cooked inside their own ink. The general rule is that this dish requires time to be elaborated properly and that is the reason why in Spain you can find it ready in cans in every supermarket.
The recipe is elaborated with calamari fry gently inside its own ink mixed with vegetables or bread. The characteristic colour comes from the ink and is frequent to find it served with rice and the black sauce, that use to be slightly hot to give the dish a special flavour. You can find it as appetiser or as main plate, in the last case is when you can find it mixed with rice.
Now that you know a little more about the recipe, it time to start with it!
What is the origin of Calamares en su tinta?
Although this is a dish widely spread in Spain, there are people that think the origin is not Spanish, to be more concrete, there is people that believe the origin is Philippine. The reason is that there are recipe books from the beginning of the 18th century where the chefs said that they threw the ink away because they didn’t like it, this is the principal basis for this theory.
This time connected with the spread of Christian missions thought Asia, where the Italian Mateo Ricci was the maximum exponent of the cultural exchange. There are also documents that talked about the oriental influences in the European and Spanish gastronomy.
Ingredients:
- 1,5 kg of calamari.
- 50 g of bread.
- 250 g of onion.
- 500 g of tomato.
- 250 mL of Virgin Extra Olive Oil.
- 5 garlic gloves.
- 2 bags of calamari ink.
- Fresh Parsley.
- 2 Dry leaves of bay.
- Thyme
- Salt
Time of preparation: 1 hour.
How to cook Calamares en su tinta:
First step: Ingredients preparation.
First of all, we are going to prepare the vegetables and the bread and, afterwards we are going to proceed with the calamari.
Take the bread and slice it, the pieces shouldn’t be neither so large, nor so thick, because we have to fry it afterwards and a homogenous fry is highly recommended.
After cutting the bread, is time for the vegetables. Dice the tomato and the onion and preserve. The tomato should be cut small and, in contrast, don’t cut the onionin very small dices.
Cut the fresh parsley too into small pieces.
Finally, is the time for the calamari, cut them into rings, the rings shouldn’t be so thin or you won’t appreciate the taste of calamari.
Top Tip: is advisable to prepare the ingredients in a properly way to make the cooking of the Calamares en su tinta more comfortable. Firstly, we have to take out all the necessary ingredients for the Paella and clean them. If we have space we should also take all the plates, knifes, etc. out too. The previous preparation will allow you to face the cooking with more calm because you don’t need to search anything when you are in the middle of the preparation.
Top tip: preserve the ink of the calamari you are using. The taste of the final recipe will be far better that way.
Second step: Calamari Cooking.
Put the calamari inside a pot. Add to the pot also half of the onion you have previously cut, some salt, the leaves of bay, some thyme, the fresh parsley you have previously cut and 3 garlic cloves.
Now, add some Virgin Extra Olive Oil and put the pot on a low heat fire, cover the pot and leave everything cooking. You should stir the mixture from time to time.
Top Tip: don’t be so generous with the salt, if you have been short of salt, you can always correct it in the end. But there is nothing to do if you put so much of it in your food.
Top Tip: Smash a little the garlic cloves with the side of the knife, they will provide more taste to your dish.
Third step: Prepare the sauce.
At the same time the calamari are being cooked, put some Olive Oil inside a pan and start heating it.
Once the pan is already hot, put the two remaining garlic cloves and the slices of bread inside the pan (look at the top tip above), wait until they have a golden colour, remove from the pan and preserve.
In that pan put the onion remaining, with the cut parsley and left it covered with low heat. Stir from time to time too.
When the onion is soft, add the tomato and the fried bread with the garlic, let it boil all together with low heat for around 15 minutes.
Take out of the pot the calamari stock and add to the pan. Leave it boiling for 5 minutes.
Top Tip: You should stir everything from time to time and push the ingredients to finish having a mixture with a thick liquid consistency.
Final Step.
Finally, strain the content of the pan and the ink of the calamari and put everything inside the pot.
Let the pot cook for 5 minutes in low heat, rectify the salt and serve.
Top Tip: In Spain is usual to find this dish served inside a refractory plate and decorated with a leave of Fresh Parslay.
