How to Clean Calamari Perfectly (Step-By-Step Guide With Pictures!)

Calamari are molluscs that are widely used and loved in cooking. Not to be confused with squid or cuttlefish, calamari are fished in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Ocean and can be prepared in many different ways. Depending on their size, they can be cut into rings and then fried, or cooked in a pan: their ink is also often used, as a condiment for spaghetti or risotto. Stewed calamari are very popular, but also stuffed or baked, especially when they have a very large sac.

The secret to a good calamari recipe is first of all to choose fresh fish: pay attention to the color, which must be bright and vivid, and to the smell, which must intensely smell of sea and saltiness. Once purchased, the calamari must be cleaned. Cleaning calamari is often considered a difficult and laborious operation, for this reason today we will explain how to do it in just a few minutes. Just remove the head and the innards, eliminate the skin and fins, extract the transparent cartilage and wash well: your calamari are ready to be cooked. Here are the procedures for cleaning calamari step by step.

How to Clean Your Calamari

Rinse the calamari well under running water.

Using your hands, gently detach the head from the coat and set it aside.

With two fingers, find the transparent cartilage feather that is in the coat and gently extract it. Wash the calamari again under running water and, with your hands, remove the innards from the mantle. If the calamri has an ink sac, you can find it in the mantle cavity: drain the liquid and store it in a container; the innards should be thrown away.

Proceed in the same way with the rest of the calamari.

Now, remove the outer skin: cut the final part of the coat with the knife, just enough to take a flap of the skin and pull it off. To finish cleaning, remove the fins, which you can use in various preparations (even as stuffing for the calamari itself!).

Now it's time to remove the calamari's teeth: take the head, separate the tentacles and cut just below the eyes; remove the central tooth. The tentacles can be cooked together with the calamari or separately; remove the skin from these too.

Rinse all the parts of the calamari under running water: now you can cut them according to the recipe you have chosen. If you have to prepare stuffed calamari, for example, you can leave the mantle whole; for frying, however, the mantle should be cut into rings. If you want to roast them, make small incisions on the mantle, but without cutting it completely.