Not your Mom/Grandma's Pressure Cooker

Here is a picture of my Fagor Electric 3 in 1!

This wonderful appliance is a rice cooker, slow cooker and a pressure cooker all in one.

In the old days the pressure cookers that were used on stovetop involved alot of guess work and in my opinion luck! Making sure it was up to the pressure you needed and then timing it and releasing the pressure manually-if you dared!

This wonder does all of this for you and can I tell you it makes some of the best meals you can imagine in under 1 hour.

A few years back my stove was broken during the holiday season-I cooked everything in my pressure cooker from soup to dessert. It was awesome.

Here is one of my favorite meals-which I can gaurantee you, you will not find this recipe in any of the old fashioned pressure cooker cook books.

Cheese Stuffed Calamari in Tomato Sauce

Sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion-chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Filling
4 oz calamari tentacles, finely chopped
2/3 cup bread crumbs
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp fresh basil
1 garlic clove crushed
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

12 large calamari bodies
For the sauce: in a 5-7 quart pressure cooker, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic. Cook stirring often until the onion begins to soften, about 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and hot pepper.

Lock the lid in place. Bring to high pressure and cook for 10 minutes. Quick release the pressure and open the lid.

Meanwhile make the filling: In a medium bowl combine the chopped calamari tentacles, bread crumbs, ricotta, parmesan, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Loosely stuff the calamari bodies with the filling (fingers work better than a spoon), leaving some room for expansion, and close the openings with wooden toothpicks. Pinching the openings closed quickly rinse off any filling on the outsides of the stuffed calamari under running cold water.

Place the stuffed calamari in the sauce. Lock the lid in place. Return to high pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Allow pressure to release on it's own.

Serve calamari and sauce in bowls sprinkled with fresh basil and french bread.

Enjoy this recipe and please let me know what experiences you have had with pressure cookers.