Pasta with Calamari

With sunny days becoming frequent and spring just around the corner, I changed my menu at home this week and decided to add a little bit more fish! So this week I prepared a nice plate of spaghetti with a calamari sauce. Here is the recipe for the sauce. I prefer to serve this with spaghetti, but you can use any pasta you like.

Serves 4
1 large calamari – about 30cm in length
1 medium onion sliced thinly
1 x 400g tin, chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons kunserva
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
150g green & black olives, pitted and chopped
1 teaspoon capers, chopped
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon butter

Start off by cleaning the calamari, or ask you fishmonger to do so. Once it’s cleaned, slit a knife across once side of it and open it up into a butterfly. Now cut the calamari into cubes about 2cm x 2cm.

In a pot, place some olive oil and add the onion. Once the onion softens, add the calamari and cook for about 2 minutes.

Now add the kunserva (tomato paste) and the chopped tomatoes and season with the anchovy paste. Add the capers, olives and about 1 cup of water and simmer for 15 minutes. Now add the oregano and stir in the butter and cook the sauce for another 30 minutes or until the sauce has reached the thickness required.

I prefer to serve a thick sauce in this case as it coats the pasta beautifully.

You can allow the sauce to simmer for longer if you wish. Once the pasta is cooked, stir the pasta into the sauce and serve.

You can also prepare the sauce in advance and freeze it.

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