Calamari in zimino (Squid Braised in Greens) Recipe

If you’ve read our Glossary of Italian Cooking Terms, you’ll know that the term ‘in zimino‘ refers to a whole class of dishes in which the main ingredient (usually seafood) is braised in spinach or swiss chard. And perhaps no dish represents this class better than this one, calamari in zimino, from Tuscany and Liguria. There are myriad variations of this dish, as we’ll talk about in the Notes. For today’s post, I relied mostly on a recipe offered my old standby Florentine chef and food historian Giuliano Bugialli, with a few adjustments to suit my personal taste. The dish is also made with seppie (cuttlefish) and totani (so called ‘shortfin’ squid)—and indeed cuttlefish is probably more common than squid—but squid is what you can find more…