Serves: 4
Squid are not the most appealing sea creatures and the ones I picked up this morning from the fishmonger were real monsters from the deep. Despite their frightening appearance they are one of the easiest things to prepare but a good fishmonger will oblige if you can’t face it.
As long as you remember that squid needs either hot and short cooking or low and slow you can’t go wrong. Sobrasado is a delicious soft sausage from Mallorca. It is not dissimilar to chorizo but has a wonderful melting texture-it’s like eating spicy pâté. If you have a bit of the sausage left over I recommend spreading it over some toasted sourdough bread.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, peeled and cut into eighths
- 1 red pepper, halved, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1 green pepper, halved, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 200ml red wine
- 400g tin tomatoes, crushed
- 700g prepared squid cut into rings (about 1.3-1.5kg pre-prepared weight)
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 200g sobrasada, outer casing removed and cut into 1cm thick slices
Method
- Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole and add the onion, pepper and garlic. Cook over a moderate heat, stirring frequently, for 12-15 minutes until the vegetables are starting to soften. Turn the heat up and pour in the wine. Let it boil hard until the wine has reduced by at least half. Turn the heat down and stir in the tomatoes and 150ml water. Add the squid, fennel and thyme and bring to the boil. Turn the heat right down, cover with a lid and simmer gently for 1 hour.
- Heat a frying pan and lay the pieces of sobrasada over the base. Fry for 1-2 minutes, drain off the fat and turn over the slices. Fry for a further 1-2 minutes. Add the sobrasada to the braised squid and cook for 10-15 minutes. Taste and season with salt and ground black pepper. Serve with lots of crusty bread.
