Stewed Calamari with Rice Porridge

They say that you should either cook calamari for one minute or one hour; anything in between will give you something like a rubber band. Feeling ambitious, I had a notion to try both at once. I was going to put half of the calamari into some slow cooked stew or braise and the rest I would grill or sauté quickly in a very hot pan. I was looking though Mario Batali's Simple Italian Food for inspiration when I stumbled upon "One Hour Calamari in Umido with Ramp Bruschetta." It is essentially calamari stewed in a spicy tomato sauce and sounded so good that I forgot all about the grilled calamari.

I had also been thinking of making some risotto after reading some excellent descriptions on other food weblogs. At first I wanted to try to get the calamari integrated into the risotto but I basically gave up on that after I decided on the Mario recipe. Then I was going to just make a plain risotto as an accompaniment to the calamari stew. I started thinking about the last few times I had had a risotto type dish, at Bella and at Morimoto. Both of those times, but especially at Morimoto, the risotto had an incredibly smooth texture and very mild taste. It served very well to support a more strongly flavored food without interfering. At Morimoto, the 'risotto' was actually called a rice porridge, but it seemed to be prepared the same way except only with rice and water. Given that I was now trying to duplicate what I had experienced at Morimoto (and the fact that we didn't have any arborio rice), I decided to use sushi rice. The short, fat kernels of the sushi rice seemed like a worthy substitute for arborio.

The calamari became tender after only 45 minutes of cooking so I had to cover it until I was finished with the rice. Although I was nervous about the rice tasting too bland, it came out very creamy indeed, no doubt helped by the butter I decided to add. We didn't have any ramps, but I had picked up some baby bok choy from the vegetable store and that is what you see cooking under the broiler in the picture above. The meal came together very nicely in the end. The calamari was very tender and delicious in the spicy sauce, the rice was so very creamy and played a nice supporting role, and the garlicky bruschetta added the crispy texture and grilled taste that I had originally wanted from the calamari.

Stewed Calamari
adapted from Mario Batali

1-2 tbs olive oil
1 (28 oz) can tomatoes
2 shallots, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 cup white wine
1 lb calamari, cleaned and cut into 1/2 inch rings
4-6 cloves garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1/2 cup parsley, chopped

In a large pot, cook the shallots in the olive oil until they start to turn brown, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, crushing them with your hands as you put them in or with a potato masher in the pot. Add the wine, pepper flakes, garlic and calamari and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and add salt to taste. Cook uncovered at a moderate simmer until the calamari are very tender, 45 minutes to an hour. Stir in parsley. This recipe should serve 3-4.

Rice Porridge

1/2 cup sushi (or arborio) rice, unrinsed
2 tbs butter
salt to taste
4 cups water

Bring the water to a simmer in a pot and adjust the heat to keep it at a simmer. In another pot over low to medium heat, heat one tablespoon of the butter until it stops foaming. Add the rice and cook until it turns translucent, about 2 minutes. Begin adding the simmering water to the rice, stirring constantly. You want to add enough water to just cover the rice, stir and stir and stir until the water is almost used up and then do it all over again. Continue doing this until the rice is fully cooked. You probably won't use all of the water. Add a bit more water if the consistency is too thick since it will thicken up even more as it cools down. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and salt to taste. Serves 3-4.