San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Recipe for California squid with garlicky noodles.
A case for making it at home with fresh, local seafood
California squid is one of the most common, sustainable, cheap and widely available creatures of the sea that you should be eating but you’re probably not.
I get it. It’s usually just a type of seafood (technically a cephalopod) that you’d order at a restaurant. Most likely it’s battered and fried and served with marinara sauce. At a Sichuan restaurant it might be tossed with white pepper, fresh chile peppers and garlic that all bloom into the air above. It’s humble and charming.
Ordering fried squid at a restaurant conceals what many are afraid of: the squid’s odd appearance. And the thought of cleaning them, which seems hard, but is actually not. You simply remove the head, the insides, the beak and the spine, which takes just a few minutes. Have I lost you? Are you still thinking about that basket of fried squid arriving at your favorite restaurant?
That’s hard to achieve these days, and I also don’t recommend frying it yourself, which is messy and could ruin your favorite COVID19 sweatshirt. One of my favorite ways to cook squid is simpler. I toss whole bodies and tentacles in olive oil and add them to a very hot pan. There’s usually an immediate hiss from first contact. I’ll leave them alone, hissing at me, and once I see pieces lift up, coloring on the bottom, about two minutes, turn the squid over, revealing a golden crust similar to the caramelization you’d want on a steak. Cooking the squid hot and fast makes sure the texture remains tender and highlights the squid’s delicate flavor: slightly sweet, a little briny, the essence of the sea.
In addition to its ease of cooking, local squid is considered a “best choice” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, and buying it supports local fishermen. It’s also reasonably priced. I called a few local markets, and king salmon, also local and in season, is selling for around $35 a pound right now while squid, cleaned or not cleaned, is about $9 a pound. A sweet deal if you ask me.
The Squid Pasta Salad With Lots of Basil and “Hot Sauce” is just that: a sweet package of spicy and very garlicheavy noodles that welcomes summertime wear and rosé weather. I say “lots” of basil because it’s more than you’d normally see in a pasta dish, which makes this feel like a salad.
The “hot sauce” in this dish isn’t hot sauce from a jar. It’s a quick paste made with pounded garlic, dried chile flakes, black pepper and red wine vinegar. You’ll gently warm it in the same pan after searing the squid and tossing with the spaghetti. I recommend doubling the yield for the hot sauce. If you do, it’ll keep in the fridge. Spread it on warm toast for spicy garlic bread or thin it out with more vinegar and olive oil to make a vinaigrette for a tomato salad when tomatoes show up at the market in the summer.
Christian Reynoso is a chef, recipe developer and writer. Originally from Sonoma, he lives in San Francisco. Email: food@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @christianreynoso Twitter: @xtianreynoso