Grilled Squid with Chickpeas, Olives and Orange

Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Jeremy Sewall

Marinated grilled squid is dressed while hot with sweet orange, crunchy fennel, tender chickpeas and briny olives then spooned over arugula for a light Mediterranean salad. Feel free to use use any sweet citrus, like grapefruit, blood orange or pomelo. Serve with crusty bread and crisp white wine.

Serves 4 as an appetizer

¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 peeled shallot
4 scallions
6 basil leaves
3 tablespoons lemon juice
8 pieces of clean squid tubes
8 sets of tentacles
1 cup cooked chickpeas, canned or from dry
¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
2 oranges, peel and pith sliced away, segmented (or suprèmed) and juice reserved
¼ cup thinly shaved fennel bulb
2 cups baby arugula leaves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Place the first 6 ingredients in a blender and purée. Toss with the squid and let marinate in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.

Light a grill or heat a grill pan to smoking. Remove the squid from the marinade and let excess drip off, then season with salt and pepper. Grill about 2 minutes each side, rotating a few times on the grill so it cooks evenly—a little charring is OK. Grill the tentacles as well, and if the grill grates are too wide you can place a cooling rack on the grill so they don’t fall through. Place the grilled squid on a cutting board and cut into thin rings.

Combine the chickpeas, olives, fennel and orange segments in a bowl. Mix the orange juice, mustard and olive oil together to make a dressing. Pour over the chickpea mixture and toss to combine, then fold in the sliced squid tubes, grilled tentacles and the accumulated juices. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, arrange arugula on a serving dish and spoon the dressed chickpea and grilled squid mixture over the top.

This recipe appeared in the Spring 2019 issue as part of a larger story on squid.