If you have been to Spain you will surely have eaten a type of tapas called "calamares a la romana". "Romana" means from Rome, and "calamar" is squid, but neither in Rome nor in Italy do you eat squid with that type of batter. I do not have an explanation for the name, sometimes the attribution of a recipe to a given place has not any sense !
The best batter for foods with irregular volume is provided by Orly pasta. However, Orly pasta is not the most suitable to go in a hurry. The following recipe for batter pasta is prepared more quickly and combined with the squid, it makes an unforgettable dish. Remember that this recipe should be tasted just made.
INGREDIENTS (4 people) :
For the batter :
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon and a half of sieved wheat flour
- A teaspoon of baking powder (about 5 grams)
- Soda water
- Salt (one teaspoon should be more than enough)
- 20-25 squid rings
- Oil
- Wheat flour (to batter the squid rings before to soak in the sauce)
In a bowl we mix the egg with the flour and the yeast. We use the whisk to remove any lumps. The mixture is probably a bit thick. We lower it with sparkling water - or normal water - until it has the consistency of a rather liquid porridge.
In another bowl we salt and flour the squid rings. This is an important step, don't forget it. We pour oil into a pan until it reaches 1 cm deep (half an inch). We heat until it is about to smoke.
We bathe the rings in the pasta and drain well before putting in the pan. The frying must be bubbly being unnecessary to turn the ring if we have been careful to fill the pan sufficiently with the oil. It is also necessary to avoid that the rings touch each other. In less than a minute the ring will be golden and inflated like in the industrial batters that we find in supermarkets.
This pasta can be frozen to use when necessary, unlike the orly pasta which, that due to the use of fresh yeast, is not recommended to do so.