Calamari in white sauce with noodles

My family loves seafood, some kinds more than others. Calamari is one of the kinds we love. The first time I made anything with it I couldn't tell the little one till after he ate that it was squid. He looked at me like I was kidding, then I explained it was true! He did however like it. I still think if I would have told him what it was at first, he would have touched it with his tongue and stated how much he "liked it a little bit" (which means he doesn't).

There aren't too many recipes for calamari, usually the basic batter and fry one. Sometimes you see them made with red sauces, and once in a while in a salad. Well I wanted something a little different, so I went with a white sauce with spaghetti noodles.

First of all with the calamari, you need to run water over them to make sure they are clean. I use frozen ones and have to also defrost them. Set them in a bowl to the side with a bit of salt and pepper, then move on to the veggies. Dice one large onion (I used red onions in mine) and approx. 4 cloves of garlic, setting them to the side as well. In a pan put some extra virgin olive oil in the bottom, enough to coat, and set it on med low heat till the oil has a shimmer. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and let them soften then add in your calamari. While this is cooking chop up one red bell pepper (any other color will do, I just like the brightness of the red :) ). Let the onion, garlic and calamari cook for about 5 minutes then add in the pepper.

In a small bowl put about 3 tablespoons of flour and add approx. 1/4 cup of cold milk, and mix making sure there are no lumps (this keeps the flour from lumping up in the hotness of the pan). Add this into the pan with the rest of the ingredients, stirring it in as well as another cup of milk. Salt and pepper should be added and then cook this for another 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Take it off the heat and let cool in the pan or in a serving bowl. Now if you want to make it a more rich and thick sauce you can take about 2 big tablespoons of cream cheese, broken into little chunks and add it to the sauce to melt.

Plate the cooked and drained spaghetti (I use whole wheat noodles), and ladle the sauce on top. Add some sliced green onion tops to garnish and some Parmesan cheese to the top, and it's ready to eat!