Squid pro crow
I would not normally present a recipe with this many steps. In fact, at home I don’t really have time for recipes with more than three or four components.
This is different. It is a recipe off the menu in the restaurant. It first made an appearance last year, conceived by the then head chef at Cumulus Inc, Casey McDonald. I have eaten this dish more often than any other dish I have served in the restaurant. Due to the repetitious nature of what we do, I rarely eat any of the completed dishes once they hit the menu. I also don’t really enjoy sitting in my own restaurant. Way too many distractions to relax.
Sadly, Casey has left us to return home to New Zealand. Casey’s legacy, however, lives on with this salad. I am somewhat curious as to what Casey was thinking when he paired a fermented soft salami-like paste, nduja, with calamari. Whatever it was, it worked.
Nduja, the ingredient du jour across the country for the past 12 months, is popular for good reason. It’s spicy as hell, highly seasoned and it packs a punch. A little goes a long way. I like having a stash in the fridge and slipping some into a tomato-based pasta sauce. Sautéed with a little oil as per the recipe, the cooked nduja is great drizzled over grilled vegetables or even pizza.
Grilled calamari has to be my favourite seafood to cook on the barbecue. A raging fire is important and a quick kiss on the grill is all it needs. It’s best to just undercook the calamari: it continues to cook a bit with the residual heat from the grill. Timing the calamari is important for this recipe. Overcooked rubbery calamari
• is not the ideal texture, for this salad anyway.