dinner is on the stove

tonight, i'm having suppions farcis -- or, in english, squid stuffed with a spinach-gruyere mixture seasoned with savory and nutmeg, simmered in tomato-saffron sauce. i've made it once before, but that time i had much smaller squid and had to clean them myself, and i followed the recipe exactly, and the results were less than satisfactory considering how much work it is to clean squid.

i remembered what didn't work last time, though, and tonight i thought i'd try it again. this time i started with huge pre-cleaned squid i got from the asian supermarket. (oh, how i love the Pacific Super, where yesterday i found shallots and ginger root both on sale for 59 cents a pound!) i changed the cheese in the recipe from "parmesan or swiss" (last time i used parmesan) to gruyere (which i had on hand from the butternut squash turnovers i did the other night), and doubled the quantity. i reduced the slightly excessive amount of nutmeg, and also the amount of onion in the sauce. (the original proportions called for four tomatoes and three medium-size onions, which was just way too damn much onion, even for me.)

the squid are simmering in the sauce now, and will be done in about an hour. the filling alone is much better than last time, and two huge squid are a definite improvement over eight tiny ones. i predict deliciousness. no garlic in this dish, and despite the tomato sauce a relatively delicate flavor, so i'm going with some australian chardonnay with this. i wish i'd thought to pick up some salad greens, but i'm too lazy to go get them now.

anyway. i'll report back later.