I found this recipe for grilled stuffed calamari in a Greek cookbook several years ago and have used it extensively. The recipe in the Greek style was significantly different from this one in that the calamari were only stuffed with feta cheese. The feta was marinated in the same way as I’ve shown here, but the other ingredients I have included for the stuffing were left out.
That just goes to show how flexible this recipe is. You can stuff these delicious seafood tubes with whatever your heart desires!
Experiment with ingredients that you like. This is my favorite version so far. I haven’t included the quantity of the ingredients, because that’s not the way that I cook, and it depends on the size of the calamari. These were huge, but honestly, I prefer ones that are medium to hold enough stuffing, yet still be tender.
Ingredients
Calamari cleaned and skin and removed, tentacles cut off but left in one piece
Olive oil
Oregano
Crushed red pepper
Garlic
Feta cheese
Chopped fresh parsley
Combine the oil, garlic and spices and make a marinade. Cut the feta into cubes and put it and the squid into the marinade and let sit in refrigerator for several hours.
Additional ingredients
Spinach (frozen, thawed or fresh sautéed-all water removed)
Sundried tomatoes, chopped
Capers, chopped
After the calamari and feta have marinated for a while, Remove the calamari and combine some of the marinade liquid with the spinach sundried tomatoes, capers and feta to make the stuffing. You want it to be moist, but not too oily. I strained mine to include all of the garlic bits and the parsley in the stuffing. Salt and pepper to taste. The feta will provide some salt so be careful.
Put the stuffing into the calamari and close the open end with a toothpick.
I used a grill pan over the stove, but you can put them on a gas or charcoal grill. They don’t need to cook very long, but it also depends on the size of the calamari. I cooked my really large ones for 5 minutes on each side. The heat should be medium and the main thing you want to accomplish is to heat the stuffing while grilling the calamari. Put the tentacles on a skewer and grill them half the time of the stuffed calamari.
Serve all with fresh lemon wedges to squeeze over it. Enjoy! I served mine with a simple salad of avocado, tomatoes, and onion. Let me know if you come up with another variety of stuffing that, I should try.