Neil and I absolutely love shopping at Fiesta Farms in Toronto. It’s a bit like our foodie Disneyworld. The place is filled with amazing ‘food finds’, so it’s fitting to write my first Food Find post about a product we discovered on our last trip there.
The variety of interesting ethnic foods at Fiesta Farms is amazing. Never would have I imagined that the canned fish section would be so appealing. Actually, when Neil spotted his first tin of ‘Calamary’ stew I think I scoffed at the thought and told him to put it back. But the adventurous food-lover in him pressed on and I’m so happy he made us buy some because it’s delicious and adds so much to a quick and easy pasta!
We’ve tried two different kinds now, and particularly enjoyed this one. Your initial gut reaction might be “Ew, gross!” but if you’re into food, try it out and you’ll probably be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
Here’s a really quick pasta dish we threw together tonight that impressed us both.
Linguine with Portuguese ‘Calamary’, Lentils and Garlic Scapes.
2 garlic scapes, chopped (or 1 garlic clove)
1/2 can of lentils
1 tin of Portuguese style ‘calamary stew’
Frozen spinach, thawed and drained
White wine
A few fresh basil leaves, chopped
Fresh parsley, chopped
Crushed chili flakes (a few pinches)
S&P
Sautee the garlic scapes and chili flakes in a bit of olive oil. Add the ‘calamary’ with a bit of the oil/sauce from the tin and sauté. Add in a few splashes of white wine and let it cook off for a few minutes. Add the lentils with some of the lentil liquid, then add the spinach. Let it all amalgamate for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and you can add a bit of water to make it saucy.
Mix in cook pasta (we used linguine) and season again with salt and pepper to taste. Plate the pasta and add a good amount of freshly chopped parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil to finish.
Communal Table 
Fun and I would never have thought to pick up “Calamary!” Good on Neil for being so adventurous! 🙂
Nice, but why would you use frozen spinach this time of year? 🙂
Touche! 🙂
Had we had fresh spinach in the fridge we definitely would have used it, but since this was a quick dinner made with stuff we already had, we used frozen. We always keep frozen spinach in the house and throw it into lots of dishes!