Sardinian summers.

stuffed calamaro

I had never seen a squid so big!! 600 grams in weight. I imagine that the fisherman who has caught it  must have been an enormous man. I remember when I was little, my parents, for years ,toke me and my brothers on holiday in Sardinia. We did free camping (in those days it was still possible) and  slept in a small caravan parked on the beach.

camping on the beach

We stayed a whole month, often we ate bread and grapes on the beach for lunch and for dinner , there was always fresh fish. My parents, thinking about it now, were perhaps a little bit ‘hippy in those days, and to be honest I’m very pleased . I had a small spear, and with that I had to catch octopus, my older brothers they had a fishing rod and a spear gun.  I remember a few fish they caught, we ate for dinner, octopus never! However ,sometimes my father took us to the Siniscola village, where in the morning came the boats with fresh fish and my father would buy some.  

My brother Pierpaolo fishing

Me,my brothers Riccardo e Pierpaolo

Often in the evening we made a fire on the beach and my mother cooked stuffed squid. Inside were several ingredients including bread……… Returning to these days and my giant squid. Yesterday at the fish counter when I found this squid I remembered the recipe of my mother. My only consideration was that if I used  the bread also, thinking about the size of the squid … .perhaps it would come out a little heavy.. . so at the end I had this idea. Cous cous. It was fantastic, unfortunately the beach was missing!
Serves 4
600 grams of squid
½ cup of cooked peas
250 g cous cous  
20 small black olives
4 prunes
½ lemon juice
20 grams of pine nuts
A handful of fresh herbs: parsley, basil and mint.
Salt, pepper, oil Ages
How it works:
Clean the squid and cut off the legs. Prepare the cous cous and allow to cool. Finely chop the fresh herbs.   cut the olives coarsely and stone them, cut the plums. Combine all the ingredients to the couscous, adding pine nuts, peas, lemon juice, salt, pepper and plenty of oil Ages. Cut into small pieces the squid legs. Start to fill the squid with the mixture of cous cous, and legs. When the squid is full, close using wooden tooth pix. Keep the remaining couscous aside. Bake or BBQ the squid until cooked .Serve with remaining cous cous.