Hello Everybody! Today I am sharing with you my Fried Calamari recipe! This crunchy, delicious Fried Calamari recipe is so good on its own or when dipped in fresh homemade marinara sauce. Watch the full video to follow along as I cook this recipe step by step or continue scrolling for the written recipe.

Fried Calamari Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 lbs. calamari, cleaned
• all purpose flour, seasoned with salt and black pepper
• peanut oil

Marinara Sauce Ingredients:

• 6 plum tomatoes, skin removed and chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• few leaves of basil
• 1/2 Italian long hot pepper, chopped, optional
• 2 oz. olive oil
• salt and black pepper, to taste

Begin by thoroughly cleaning the calamari. To do this, you must turn them inside out to remove the stringy, fatty layer. Rinse under cold water and then cut the calamari into 1/2 inch to 1 inch rings. Place them in a strainer to strain any excess water. To prepare the plum tomatoes, boil them for about 2 minutes or until you notice the skin peeling. Remove from the water and peel off all of the skin.

At this point, fill a deep skillet up to 1/2 of the way with peanut oil. Heat it up over a medium flame. This will be used to fry your calamari.

While the peanut oil is heating up, begin cooking your marinara sauce in a separate pot. Pour the olive oil in the pot and begin frying your garlic and shallots over a medium/low flame. After about a minute or two, add in the hot pepper. Continue to stir for about a minute and then add in the tomatoes and basil. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper and stir together. Continue to simmer over a medium/low flame.

Now it is time to cook the fried calamari! Add two handfuls of calamari onto the flour dish and mix until all of the calamari are coated with the flour. Once fully coated, add the calamari into the deep skillet and fry until golden, making sure to continuously stir so that the calamari rings do not stick together. Scoop out the fried calamari and place on a dish covered with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Continue these same steps to fry the rest of the calamari.

Once all of the calamari are fried, top off with a sprinkle of sea salt and serve with a side of marinara sauce to dip and enjoy! Salute and cin cin!