Cleaning calamari isn’t too tricky. Here’s how to it.
1. Get yourself a couple of bowls, a colander, a chopping board and a knife.
2. Take a calamari and lay it flat on the board. Now, grab hold of the head and gently pull it apart from the body, removing everything from inside.
3. Check that the hard transparent backbone has come out. If not, pull it out separately.
4. Put the empty body into one of the two bowls.*
5. Now, lay out the head and tentacles and cut just below the eyes. Put the tentacles into the bowl with the body and throw the rest (head and guts) in the other to discard.
6. When you have done them all, give a good rinse to all the parts you are going to cook, tentacles and bodies, and put them into a colander to drain.
*Some people will tell you to take the thin skin off but this is really up to you. We no longer do it and find it makes no difference. It might even be tastier.
