Chargrilled Squid with Nduja Sausage, Tomato, Chilli, Garlic, Basil and Rocket

I saw a version of this recipe online and thought id give it a little tweak to come up with this light lunch dish. If you’ve not tried Nduja sausage its an absolute cracking ingredient for dishes like this or to add a rich smokey flavour to any meal. This recipe will serve 2.

You will need:

3 Squid tubes (cleaned and prepped)

100g of Nduja Sausage

2 Cloves of Garlic finely sliced

25ml Olive Oil

1/2 Small Bunch of Basil (leaves picked)

1 Red Chilli (finely diced)

1/2 Small red onion (finely diced)

300g if Mixed baby Cherry and Plum tomatoes

1/2 Lemon

Salt and Pepper

1. Slice all your tomatoes in half and add to a cold pan with the garlic, chilli, onion and crumbled sausage (you will need to skin the sausage to release the soft meat. Turn the heat on low and add 25ml of olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper. Keep an eye on the pan but the sauce will be ready when the tomatoes look like they are going to burst and the sausage had released all its oils. This should take around 15-20 minutes. A couple of minutes before you think its ready finely shred half the basil and sprinkle it in to the sauce.

2. To prepare the squid slide your knife along the inside of the tube to open it out. Using the back of the knife scrape down the inside of the squid to get rid of any excess membrane. Then gently score the inside of the flesh on a diagonal to make a criss-cross pattern.

3. I used the barbecue to cook my squid but a very hot pan will do if you don’t have one. Gently rub the cut side of the squid with a little oil then place in the pan on the cut side. The squid will almost immediately start to colour and curl. This should take about a minute and a half to cook.

4. Take the squid out and allow to rest for a minute before you slice in to rings. Then add the cooked squid to your sauce and gently toss the pan so all the squid is covered in the sauce. Finally add the juice of 1/2 a lemon.

5. Time to assemble. Place your sauce and squid in the centre of your plate then scatter over a few rocket and basil leaves. Finally dress with a touch of olive oil. You can have this dish as it is or with a little sourdough bread to mop up the sauce.

Enjoy!