One of the reasons I find fasting for Lent more manageable is because when I choose a recipe (and ultimately share it), it has to be good. Not just good enough for Lent but worthy enough to reproduce throughout the year. You should consider cutting down on your red meat intake and boosting vegetables, fish and in this case, seafood.
Today’s main ingredient are what the Greeks call “thrapsala”. Thrapsala are a genus of squid that’s smaller than your adult cuttlefish but larger than your usual squid. The English name for thrapsala is Illex. The Illex has a slighter wider body than the squid, making it ideal for stuffing. If you can’t find Illex/thrapsala, your regular squid will also work, just account for them being slimmer and therefore a little harder to fill and you may need to up the amount of squid used for this recipe.
Squid, cuttlefish, octopus, Illex (all cephalpods) can be tricky to cook: they like to be cooked quickly or they will punish you with a rubbery result. This is a baked dish and thankfully cephalpods also offer some forgiveness to the home and professional cook alike. There’s no “in between”….either cook’em quick or cook’em slow.
Here, I’ve stuffed the squid with scallions, red peppers, garlic and fresh parsley and dill. Toss in some Arborio rice as filler and some grated fresh tomatoes and the rice cooks inside the tubes. The wonderful Lenten dish is served with a simple yet delicious tomato sauce. It’s paramount that you have very ripe, sweet tomatoes for this dish. If your market let you down, good ole’ tomato paste works in a pinch.
I only just made this recipe yesterday and despite having a huge backlog of recipes that I need to post, this one made it to the front of the line. I’m excited to share this dish with you!
Thrapsala Gemista ( θÏάψαλα γεμιστά)
(serves 4)
8-10 Illex (type of squid), or large squid
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8-10 scallions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
1 shot of Ouzo
1/2 cup diced red peppers
1 cup of Arborio rice (Carolina)
6 ripe tomatoes, grated (skins discarded)
hot water
salt and pepper to taste
Pre-heated 350F oven
- Ask your fish monger to separate the tentacles from the body and to have the tubes cleaned. Alternately, frozen squid or Illex are also fine. Allow to that overnight in your fridge. Pull the tentacles from from the body and reserve. Now pull out the spines and the guts and thoroughly rinse out the cavity of the tube. Now carefully remove the purple skins and discard. You may now also remove the two fins off each tube and finely chop them (to be added to the rice mix) and reserve.
- In a large skillet, add the olive oil over medium heat and then the scallions and garlic. Lower to medium-low and cover and allow to soften/sweat for about 5-7 minutes. Remove the cover and add the Ouzo, diced red peppers, rice and toast the rice for about 3-4 minutes while stirring. Add 1 cup of hot water plus the minced Illex/squid fins and stir until the rice has absorbed it all.
- Take the skillet off the heat and add the chopped parsley and dill. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and allow to cool completely before filling the tubes. Once your filling has cooled, pre-heat your oven and with a spoon, fill the Illex/squid tubes to 3/4 of the way (the tubes will shrink in size) with the rice filling. Poke some holes in the tubes and insert the tentacles into each tube and affix with a toothpick (this ensures that your tubes do not explode in the oven).
- Place the Illex/squid in a baking vessel and pour the grated tomato over and all around the seafood. Drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle some sea salt (about 1 1.2 tsp.) and fresh pepper and enough hot water so that the tomato/water mixture comes to half-way up the the tubes. Cover your baking vessel with aluminum foil and place in your pre-heated (middle rack) oven for 40 minutes.
- Carefully remove the baking vessel and remove the foil. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. Remove the toothpicks, spoon some sauce on each plate and divide and top each plate with 2-3 Ilex/squid per person.
- Serve with a Pavlidis Thema white – a blend of Assyrtiko and Sauvignon Blanc.
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© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis
27 Responses
A wonderful dish! I really have to try make stuffed squids.
Cheers,
Rosa
Looks so good Peter! This is one I am bookmarking to try later!
This dish looks scary difficult to make or maybe I just need to make friends with a scary good fish monger. That being said this dish looks scary delicious.
This is an amazing-looking dish Peter. I love the idea of making fasting for Lent not so painful by creating recipes you’d want all year around. Well done, as always.
Very nice Peter. I love the presentation.
It seems you are having a great Lent! I agree with you on cooking cephalpods it is either very quickly or very slowly. I love stuffed kalamari or thrapsala either with rice or with bulgur.
A fabulous dish!!! Love it
It looks amazing…
great recipe! :)
I can see why it made it to the front of the line. It’s a perfect Lenten dish. In Italy, it’s not hard to find these types of cephalopod, but here in NJ, it’s either the regular squid or nothing. My mother-in-law used to make this with rice filling; I use a bread stuffing, but I should try the rice next time.
Wow Peter, that looks amazing! I’ve never heard of this squid before, but it looks so tasty. I also like the new look of the blog. It’s been ages so I don’t know if it’s really new, but I like it :)
Peter that is seriously an amazing dish! Bravo!
Καλή Ανάσταση, Καλό Πάσχα, με υγεία και ευτυχία!
Μου άνοιξες την ÏŒÏεξη Ï€Ïωινιάτικα!
Καλό Πάσχα!
lookee here–you’ve managed to make squid look quite presentable to me! that’s no small feat, sir. :)
Peter Ï€Î¿Î»Ï Ï‰Ïαία τα θÏάψαλα σου εγώ Îτσι γεμίζω τα καλαμαÏάκια.
Καλό Πάσχα!!!
Lent at your house is just full of wonderful food
Yup, cooking such seafood has to be wither extremely quick or long and slow … anything in the middle will produce a rubbery result!!
This dish looks great Peter! I agree about most Lenten food being so good it doesn’t have to be enjoyed just during Lent … and quite honestly it would be much healthier for us all to incorporate such dishes much, much more often into our diets.
What a stunning dish with delicious flavors. I would love to try this stuffed squid.
I just adore seafood but seldom have it because I live in the wilds of Montana! Ha. Your seafood dishes always make me so hungry and I love the look and color of this – delicious!
I grew up eating stuffed squid though it was more a bread stuffing with a brownish-tomato sauce. I’ve been thinking about it recently and will have to figure out how to do it one day. Anyway, I’d so glad that you practice the Lenten traditions because you’ve offered us some beautiful and delicious dishes.
Hmmm. yes, much better than my childhood Tuna Casserole (during lent). But the fish counters in small-town Wisconsin leave a lot to be desired. I bought our Easter treats yesterday – chocolate bunnies and anchovy wrapped olives…..
Peter, this dish looks Delicious! Great Recipe!
It has been years since I have had stuffed squid and they did not compare to these. What made them special was that I caught the squid myself.
Wise words on cooking squid Peter! We have stuffed squid here (called rellenong pusit), but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a filling as delicious as this!
I have made these on multiple occasions. It really isn’t as difficult as it sounds. If you follow instructions, it will turn out perfectly.