Number seven of the most frequently seen dishes on Italian restaurant menus in America might be only seafood readily ordered in restaurants far from the coasts, fried calamari. Squid tentacles cut into small rings, and at times very small whole squids, are lightly coated in flour then quickly deep-fried until crispy and served hot with wedges of lemon and usually tomato sauce on the side, the dish has become an Italian-American menu fixture as a starter. Usually fairly clean-tasting, not fishy, it is widely enjoyed. And that it is fried might be the reason. Might be.
It is one of the many popular dishes with roots in the Naples area along with the ravioli, much of the antipasti spread, the hefty tomato-sauced lasagna, linguine in a white clam sauce, chicken parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, spumoni, eggplant parmesan, pizza, pasta with marinara sauce, insalata caprese, veal piccata, and more. Essentially unseen on menus until the 1950s when it was served here and there in coastal cities, fried calamari made considerably more appearances throughout the country during the 1980s. It is one of the dishes that people enjoy when dining out but rarely make at home. Cleaning then deep-frying squid are tasks most are very happy to leave to a restaurant.
An especially tasty order of calamari, but in Italy, at a restaurant in the seafood market in Catania
It is one of the many popular dishes with roots in the Naples area along with the ravioli, much of the antipasti spread, the hefty tomato-sauced lasagna, linguine in a white clam sauce, chicken parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, spumoni, eggplant parmesan, pizza, pasta with marinara sauce, insalata caprese, veal piccata, and more. Essentially unseen on menus until the 1950s when it was served here and there in coastal cities, fried calamari made considerably more appearances throughout the country during the 1980s. It is one of the dishes that people enjoy when dining out but rarely make at home. Cleaning then deep-frying squid are tasks most are very happy to leave to a restaurant.
An especially tasty order of calamari, but in Italy, at a restaurant in the seafood market in Catania
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