Welcome to One Pot Bangers, Benjamin Kemper’s weekly column, the place you’ll discover our freshest, boldest cooking concepts that require only one pot, skillet, or sheet pan. Busy week? We’ve received you coated with these low-effort, high-reward recipes from across the globe.
Everyone goes to Marseille for the bouillabaisse, however after per week within the Provençal capital, I can’t fairly work out why. Certain, the ruddy, saffron-scented soup is tasty and nourishing, however the expertise struck me as extra about model than substance—the sauces swirled with silver spoons, the solemn ladling of the broth, the oh-là-là filleting in plain view. Reader, it truly is simply fish stew.
I knew there was no manner the native inhabitants was subsisting on $90-a-head soup served by white-jacketed waiters, so I got down to decide what people had been actually consuming. And that’s how I discovered my new favourite seafood dish, supions à la provençale.
Supions are small squid measuring some three inches in size. At down-home eating places throughout the area, cooks sauté them with garlic and parsley till they’re deep brown and crunchy in spots. That crunch, as I’d study at Restaurant Paule et Kopa, was as a lot a few fast dredge in flour because it was concerning the excessive flame. Behind the swinging door, I watched as a prepare dinner tossed the squid right into a screaming-hot pan after which allow them to prepare dinner, undisturbed, for what appeared like an eternity. “Uh, aren’t they going to burn?” I requested with out pondering, instantly wincing at how pedantic I will need to have sounded. “Endurance! Endurance!” he mentioned with a smile. “You need to resist the temptation to disturb them.” Two minutes later, I used to be rewarded with a plate of essentially the most tender—but concurrently crisp—squid I’d ever tasted.
To higher perceive the dish, I caught up with Alexis Steinman, a longtime Marseille transplant and culinary tour information with Culinary Backstreets. “Squid with parsley and garlic is the epitome of old-school Marseille delicacies,” she advised me over milky-white glasses of pastis. “Easy. Familial. Italian-inspired.” She then pointed me within the route of Chez Etienne, one other supion temple. There, within the sweaty paper-tablecloth eating room heaving with locals, the squid had been meatier, the garlic extra assertive. I alternated bites with the aspect salad the supions got here with: Bibb lettuce and radicchio kissed with lemon-mustard French dressing. In a while, as I flumped into the taxi, I thanked the heavens for my N95 masks: Each exhale felt like bioterrorism.
Again residence in my Madrid residence, I futzed with the recipe till I had the perfect of each worlds: the crackly exterior from Paule et Kopa and the fearless garlickiness from Chez Etienne. And borrowing a web page from the latter, I dumped the fried squid over a mattress of lemony greens and threw on some croutons for crunch.
Final week, as my associates helped themselves to seconds of the supions, it struck me that there’s really no higher memento than a recipe. This dish, a portal to Marseille’s louche, rambunctious taverns jammed with wine-swilling locals, will stick to me till the top of my days.
Word: If you happen to like your squid with a little bit of bounce, comply with the recipe as is; in case you want that it’s additional tender, quick-brine it: In a bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 tablespoon of salt in 3 cups of chilly water, then add the squid, cowl, and refrigerate for quarter-hour. Drain and dry with paper towels earlier than continuing to step 3.
Yield: 4
Time: 45 minutes
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped, divided
- ¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus extra as wanted
- 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp. mayonnaise
- ¾ tsp. Dijon mustard
- 1½ tsp. kosher salt, divided
- Freshly floor black pepper
- 1 lb. cleaned squid (see be aware), our bodies minimize into 1-in. squares, tentacles halved lengthwise
- 1 head Bibb lettuce, torn into bite-size items (7 cups)
- ½ small head radicchio, torn into bite-size items (2 cups)
- 4 thick nation bread slices, flippantly toasted, crusts eliminated and minimize into ½-in. cubes (2 cups)
- 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, divided, plus extra as wanted
- ¼ cup finely chopped parsley leaves
- 1 lemon, quartered, for garnish
Directions
- In a small bowl, mix one garlic clove and a couple of tablespoons of the olive oil and put aside to infuse for 20 minutes; put aside.
- In a jar, shake collectively the vinegar, mayonnaise, and mustard. Add the remaining olive oil, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and black pepper to style and shake till thickened barely; put aside.
- To a big resealable bag, add the flour and remaining salt and shake to mix. Add the squid, rub the combination round till the items are evenly coated, and put aside.
- In a big, shallow serving bowl, mound the lettuce and radicchio and put aside.
- Pressure the garlic oil into a big skillet (discarding the garlic) and switch the warmth to medium. Add the bread and fry, stirring often and including extra oil if the pan seems to be dry, till toasted and golden, about 8 minutes. Scatter over the salad.
- To the empty skillet, add half of the vegetable oil and switch the warmth to excessive. When it begins to smoke, add half of the squid. Stir to interrupt up any massive items, then prepare dinner, undisturbed, till deep golden on one aspect, about 4 minutes. Scrape the cooked squid onto a plate, then repeat with the remaining vegetable oil and squid, leaving the second batch within the pan.
- Add again the reserved squid and a tablespoon of vegetable oil if the pan seems to be dry. Add the parsley and remaining garlic and prepare dinner, stirring constantly, till aromatic (don’t burn), 30–60 seconds. Take away from the warmth.
- Working shortly, shake the French dressing to recombine and pour it over the lettuce combination. Utilizing your fingers or tongs, toss to coat. Scatter the squid atop the lettuce, garnish with lemon wedges, and serve instantly.
