Recipes & Lore • The State Appetizer

Fried Calamari, Rhode Island Style

Name: Rhode Island–Style Fried Calamari
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 4 as an appetizer
Cuisine: American (Rhode Island)
Ingredients: 1 pound cleaned squid, bodies cut into 1/2-inch rings, tentacles left whole; 1 cup buttermilk (or whole milk); 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1/4 cup fine cornmeal; 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; Neutral oil for deep frying; 3 tablespoons butter; 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin; 1/3 cup sliced pickled hot cherry peppers (or banana peppers), plus a spoonful of their brine; Chopped parsley and lemon wedges, to serve

Fried squid exists on every menu in America. Rhode Island–style calamari is a specific dish: lightly floured rings and tentacles, fried fast, then tossed — not garnished, tossed — with sliced hot cherry peppers and garlic butter, so the crunch picks up heat, brine, and shine. It's the Italian-restaurant standard from Federal Hill to the shore, it's made with squid landed a few miles from the table, and since 2014 it has been, by law, the official state appetizer — the first in the nation.

Rhode Island–style fried calamari tossed with sliced hot peppers. — Photo: GBH / Roadfood

You need

1 lb cleaned squid — bodies in ½" rings, tentacles whole (ask for domestic; Point Judith if you can get it)
1 cup buttermilk (or whole milk)
1 cup flour + ¼ cup fine cornmeal
1 tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper
Neutral oil for deep frying
3 tbsp butter, 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
⅓ cup sliced pickled hot cherry peppers (banana peppers are the accepted variation), plus a spoonful of brine
Parsley and lemon, to serve

Method

Soak the squid in buttermilk 15–30 minutes. Heat 2–3 inches of oil to 375°F.
Whisk flour, cornmeal, salt, and pepper. Drain the squid, dredge, shake off the excess — light coat, not a jacket.
Fry in small batches, 60–90 seconds, just to golden. This is the whole game: squid goes from tender to rubber band in the third minute, and there is no coming back.
In a wide pan, melt the butter with the garlic, add the peppers and a spoonful of their brine, and warm through.
Toss the hot squid in the pan to coat, shower with parsley, and serve immediately with lemon.

The lore: The squid is the local part. The Port of Galilee at Point Judith is the East Coast's squid capital — more squid crosses its docks than any other port on the Atlantic seaboard — which is why the calamari in a Rhode Island restaurant was probably swimming within sight of the state. On June 27, 2014, Governor Lincoln Chafee signed the bill naming calamari the official state appetizer, on the docks at Galilee, making Rhode Island the first state with an official appetizer at all. Then in 2020 the dish went national: during the Democratic National Convention's state-by-state roll call, Rhode Island's delegate stood beside a masked chef holding a platter of fried calamari and declared it "the calamari comeback state" — instantly the most famous twenty seconds in squid history. The peppers-and-garlic-butter treatment is the Italian kitchens of Providence talking; pair it with stuffies and you've built a proper Rhode Island appetizer round.

Sources & further reading

Send the taste of Galilee

Fresh squid stays at the docks — but the shelf-stable Rhode Island canon ships anywhere, packed in the Rhode Island Survival Kit, field guide included.

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