Perhaps before we all eat too much for Christmas and the holiday season we should try a few lighter meals, like this one. Squid is a wonderful type of seafood that is slowly becoming more popular. These days it’s available in supermarkets already cleaned and ready to use. Probably the best know squid dish is Calamari where it’s breaded, fried and served with tomato sauce to dip into. Here I cook the squid slowly, first in stock to make it tender.

Smoked garlic gives a wonderful twist to tomato sauce and is now available in a growing number of places on the internet and even at Tesco. However, if you want the best tasting smoked garlic made in the UK it has to be bought from The Garlic Farm, which is on the Isle of Wight. Their garlic is hot smoked for 48 hours over oak chippings – and the hot smoking process permits the flavour to permeate throughout the whole bulb.    Cold smoking only really smokes the outside layer making the flavour inconsistent throughout the bulb.  I first tried their garlic whilst performing cooking demonstrations at the BBC Good Food Show back in 2008 and it is still the best I have tasted.

Ingredients serves 4
20 squid rings
16 raw king prawns
1 medium onion finely diced
2-3 cloves smoked garlic
2 tins chopped tomatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp chopped coriander (cilantro)
1 clove regular garlic
12 caperberries drained (optional)
a small handful of rocket leaves ( arugula)
200g (8oz) Spaghetti

1. Put the squid rings in a saucepan, cover with cold water and simmer for 15 minutes.
   Drain all but 4 tbsp of the cooking water and allow the squid to cool.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a non-stick saucepan and add the onion and cook on a medium heat until the onion is translucent.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes then stir in 2 tins of cold water.
4. Peel the smoked garlic and crush finely then add to the sauce.
5. Cook the sauce on a low simmer for 35-40 minutes until the sauce has evaporated by ¼ so you have approximately 3 tin’s of sauce left.
6. Stir in the squid cooking liquor and the coriander and keep the sauce warm.
7. Peel the king prawns, devein them using a sharp small knife, then rinse them under cold water and drain on paper towel.
8. Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water, then drain.
9. Heat the remaining olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan until it is hot then add the regular garlic and the King prawns and brown lightly on both sides quickly, then reheat the squid  and sauce for 1-2 minutes.
10. Add the pasta and sauce to the frying pan and stir once or twice. remove from the heat and add the rocket and caperberries and serve.

To Serve
Use a pair of tongs to twist the pasta into a tidy mound in each warm pasta bowl.

Chef’s Tips
Buy the squid frozen and therefore just defrost the amount you need.
Add a few leaves of  rocket and caperberries (as I did in the photo) and serve with warm crusty bread.  Always try to use a thick bottomed saucepan when making sauces and stir from time to time to prevent it from burning.

King Prawns and Squid with Smoked Tomato Sauce © Kevin Ashton 2016