squillas gratin (canocce al forno)

I just looooove squillas... and this is maybe the best time of the year to buy them, they're just perfectly fleshy, which is needed for this recipe. One way to cook them is simply to steam-cook and garnish with olive oil, but I found this other recipe which is just as simple and has a little more taste. Try it!

20 squillas
a bunch of parsley
about 50g breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon juice

We start with the most annoying part: cleaning the squillas. You have 2 methods: one simply consists in taking out the head and making an incision along the back. It's faster, but it will be much more difficult to eat them once they're ready. The other method, which I strongly recommend, needs a short steam cooking (not more than 5 minutes), then you can easily remove all of the shell using scissors (you may keep the head and tail for decoration, but take out the back and belly shells, it will make your life much easier when you eat them). Pre-heat the oven at 200°C. Now we can prepare the filling: simply mix some breadcrumbs with 1/2 a lemon juice, a bunch of parsley and 2 tbsp olive oil, in order to obtain a sticky mixture. If you keep the shell, put the filling inside the cut you have done; if you don't keep it, just lay the squillas on a greased baking dish and cover them with the mixture. Put in the oven for no more than 10 minutes, just the time to let the filling brown. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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