I should have snuck this recipe in before we went to Italy, it has been sitting in my draft file since August and is now sadly out of season. The farmers market is still selling beautiful tomatoes, but I live in South Carolina where the season is much longer than in most places. Though I am not seeing many of these gorgeous yellow plum tomatoes at the market, a few heirlooms and some wonderful little gourd shaped tomatoes are still popping up.

This is a pasta that we had at a friend’s house one evening in Rome, they used green plum tomatoes and cuttlefish, but we used what we could find and it was a wonderful treat. I’m not crazy about the calamari that you can find here, especially because most of it comes from countries in the South Pacific, I have found calamari from Rhode Island at the Dekalb Farmer’s market in Atlanta, and even though it isn’t by any means local, at least it is a bit closer. I don’t pretend to know much about marine biology, but I don’t think that there are many calamari or cuttlefish swimming in the ocean in this part of the country. My only assumption is that the waters are too warm for them, but would need someone who knows something about these things to confirm that.

Farfalle with Calamari & Yellow Tomatoes

• 6 yellow or green plum tomatoes
• 1 lb of cleaned calamari
• 1 cup of dry white wine
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 whole cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
• ½ lb of farfalle
• ½ cup of chopped fresh flat parsley
• salt to taste

Bring a small pot of water to a boil, blanch the tomatoes for 2 minutes and transfer them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When the tomatoes have cooled, peel the skins off.

Rinse the calamari and cut into strips, separating the tentacles from the body.

Heat oil in a deep skillet or a wide saucepan over medium heat and add whole cloves of garlic. When the garlic starts to simmer, add calamari, stir to absorb the oil and then add the white wine. You want the calamari to be covered in white wine. Let the calamari simmer for about 15 minutes or until a lot of the wine has been absorbed.

Chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan with the calamari. Lower heat to a medium flame and cover pan, stirring occasionally. Sauté for another 15 to 20 minutes, letting the tomatoes break up a little and release all of their liquid, if the sauce starts to dry out, add water to the pan.

In the meantime, fill a large pot with water for the pasta. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once the water starts to boil for the pasta add a small handful of salt to the water and bring to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.

When the pasta is perfectly al dente, turn up the heat on the sauce and drain the pasta. Without shaking all of the water out of the colander pour the pasta into the pan and toss it with the sauce. This allows for the pasta to cook a little longer in the sauce and to absorb the flavor. Toss with chopped parsley and serve immediately.

One Year Ago: Spanakopita

Two Years Ago: Lunch in Anzio, Mezze Maniche alla Checca

~ by italicious on November 11, 2010.

Posted in calamari, parsley, pasta, primi, tomatoes
Tags: calamari, pasta, yellow tomatoes