It looks like I am on some seafood addiction lately, I understand it can get boring for people not fond of seafood. I bought extra calamari when I made the stew to be able to use in some other dish.

That wonderful little cereal used here, barley is one of my favorites. What I love about barely is that it always remains firm, so you always get that crunchy and a very pleasant little chewy bite. I used pearl barley whose bran layer has been removed (vs. bran barley) its size doubles volume when cooked due to its high content in fibers. It contains a lot of minerals and vitamins therefore makes it a perfect nutritious and healthy grain with low glycemic index. Orzo in Italian means barely and not “orzo pasta”.

The consumption of barley goes back to Greek and Roman civilizations due to its nutritious properties, the easiness of its transportation and long preservation, it’s supposed to be one of the most ancient grain that can be retraced back to the Egyptians.

In Italy, Orzo is also used in making a drink mixture called “caffè d’orzo“, basically it’s a powder like coffee (you can either dissolve it in hot water like instant coffee or preapre it in a moka maker) and used like coffee with milk to be served for breakfast. Its consumption as a drink started in the XVIII e century among peasants and continued throughout the years. It was mostly a drink consumed by elderly and kids for its healing properties, it’s nowadays served “al bar” (coffee shop) like espresso and is even more expensive. I love my bowl of caffè d’orzo, sometimes that’s my dinner!

I love saffron barley as much as I love saffron risotto, sometimes I just like something that has a less creamy texture than risotto, more chewy and fluffy, so barley or farro are my first choices. You can make this dish with farro too, it has equally lots of great nutrients. This barley dish has tons of character with the presence of saffron and gives it a distinct Mediterranean flair. A simple and flavorful dish very easy to prepare, un ottimo primo piatto molto gustoso ma veloce da preparare!

Ingredients for 2

• 6.34 oz (or 180 g) barley
• 1/2 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 dose saffron
• vegetable broth
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/3 tsp paprika
• 5.20 oz (or 150 g) calamari, (either already cleaned or not)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Start preparing the barley like a risotto. In a pot, heat 1 tbs olive oil, then add shallot and brown. Infuse saffron in lukewarm broth. Add barley, coat with olive oil and progressively add broth, adjust with salt and pepper (I did not use white wine like in a traditional risotto nor parmesan) and proceed until barley is cooked. You want the barley to have absorbed all the liquid unlike in a risotto, the barley needs to be somehow “dry”.

In a pan, heat 1 tbs olive oil, add garlic and stir. Add calamari, paprika, salt and pepper and sauté at high heat until calamari are cooked but not rubbery and still tender. Reduce a little of the liquid, but keep some.

When barley is cooked, add to the calamari pan, and mix well until the juice has been absorbed by barley. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot.

Here is my favorite pasta, that I had been thinking to make for months. I had two tiny squid ink bags in my refrigerator and was obsessing about them. Today, I finally decided to go ahead with my project. I can no longer use my pasta machine, since the kitchen counters have no extra border to hold it so I just have to use my mattarello (rolling pin) that is huge. Anytime I look at it, it looks like a huge monster rolling pin, my hands are a little small to manipulate it, but it works, I’ll just develop Rambo’s forearms soon. Anyway, let’s go back to the way traditional pasta was still made with a rolling pin, my grandma never used a machine, and my mom’s once in a while, when she was in a hurry.

Squid Ink is used frequently in the Veneto region’s cooking (Venice). They use it to make squid ink risotto and other local specialties. Of course it can be used in pasta as well, and gives a the dough a very subtle flavor without overpowering the dish, which goes to perfection with seafood sauces.

When you roll the pasta with a rolling pin, you need a large wooden board (spianatoia in Italian) to flatten out your sheet. I have a large board but will have one made at Ikea with larger dimensions for larger sheets. You also need a pasta rolling pin, it’s a little different from the regular ones, it is not tapered and that has the same size all the way, from one extremity to the other, so that your sheet will have the same thinness all around.

I like pasta rolled by hand much better than when done with the machine, the texture is more grainy therefore absorbs the sauce much better and I like the irregularity of the tagliatelle when cut by hand.

Ingredients for 4

For the dough

• 2 eggs
• 1 yolk
• 1 small bag squid ink
• 1 1/3 cup white flour or semolina flour

For the calamaretti sauce

• 1 lb calamari, cleaned and cut in 2 crosswise (except the tentacles)
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, peeled, seedless and diced
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbs basil, chopped
• 1 tbs parsley, chopped
• chili flakes
• 2 tbs olive oil

Preparation

For the pasta

On your spianatoia, or wooden board, place flour and make a fountain, break eggs. Dissolve squid ink in a small glass with 2 tbs water. Add squid ink to the flour/egg mixture and mix gradually all ingredients with a fork. Then when all ingredients have been incorporated, use your hands to knead the dough. If the dough is too hard, add a little water. Knead the dough for about 15-20 minutes, to get a smooth round ball. The dough should not be sticky and after kneading it for 20 min should be very smooth. You can let the ball rest in a plastic wrap for about 30 minutes, but I didn’t, if the dough is hard enough, it’s not necessary.

Then start rolling the dough, trying to spread it out evenly making a regular round sheet. The sheet should not be thicker than 1 mm. Add flour if the dough sticks to the table, but it should not stick. If it does, it means you added way too much water to the flour.

Let the sheet rest for about 10 minutes. Fold one side up th its half, then proceed the same with the opposite side.

Using a well sharped knife, cut regular strips and set the tagliatelle aside.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes, or until they come out at the surface. Pour calamari sauce on top, sprinkle with additional basil and parsley and serve.

For the calamaretti sauce

In a pan, heat olive oil. Brown shallots and add garlic, then add parsley and basil, stir to get the flavors out. Add tomatoes and chili flakes, let the tomatoes cook for about 10 minutes until some water has evaporated. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Add calamari and let them cook for about 10 minutes, do not overcook or they’ll get rubbery. Let sauce redue and water evaporate.

When I go grocery shopping and I end up in the fish section, I cannot resist to buy seafood, especially when it’s fresh. I found those at the Berkeley bowl last week and they just made my day.

It reminds me of the open markets in France and Italy where you go early in the morning to avoid the late morning or noon heat, and you buy all fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood. Then you go home to prepare lunch with all the wonderful fresh products you bought. Sometimes, the neighbor drops by, to chit chat, or gossip about some other neighbor, have apéritif, and most of the time stays for lunch. Well, that’s how it works at my parents house. It makes me nostalgic, then I feel like going home.

I am not quite sure if this recipe is Italian with a French Flair or a French with an Italian flair, so let’s say it’s mediterranean, and that is certain, because it has many of those ingredients used in mediterranean cuisine.

I love wild fennel, my mom cooked with it very often, especially in her white meat dishes, so that might why I love it so much. Wild fennel is a kind of fennel that grows wild and that has a very long stem, sometimes can go over 5.5 feet in height. In California, it grows all over the place, and I just saw a huge stem peaking in the garden that was perfect for those calamari. Wild fennel is often used to flavor olives, fish and seafood.

When you buy calamari, they shrink a lot, so don’t be afraid to buy more than what you think you would need. For this dish which was for one person as a main course (or two as an appetizer), I used one pound. The other thing to keep in mind, is that if you have never cleaned squid or calamari, you might want to buy the ones that are already cleaned, since you have to remove the skin and eyes. Well that doesn’t sound too inviting but it’s not that complicated nor repulsive. 

Ingredients for 2

• 1 lb squid
• mizuna salad or frisee
• Juice of 1/2 pink grapefruit
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbs olive oil
• chili flakes
• 1 tbs wild fennel, chopped
• 1 tbs kalamata olives, cut in halves
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp raspberry vinegar

Preparation

Clean squid by removing skin, detaching tentacles, and emptying the inside of the squid. wash under running water and place in bowl of water.  Wash well, then pat dry and remove excess water.

Cut the grapefruit in half and collect the juice of that half. Peel the other half. Remove the skin of the half quarters and set aside. 

For the vinaigrette,  mix grapefruit juice, oil, vinegar, chili flakes, garlic, fennel, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Drizzle olive oil, 1/2 tsp of vinegar on top of squid. Add salt and pepper. Grill on a grill or under broiler for about 5 minutes, until lightly . Do not overcook or the calamari will be rubbery. They’re tender so they cook very fast.

Mix olive oil and lemon and add to the salad. Mix well. Place some salad on a serving plate, add calamari, and pour some of the vinaigrette on top of the calamari and decorate with a fennel leave.