Don't get me wrong, I love fried calamari with lemons, tartar sauce and cocktail sauce, but I had grilled calamari last night and I need to tell you about it.

I was served rings of calamari that had grill marks - I am guessing the calamari rings were placed on a grill pan and turned until ready. This is fine for appetizers, however, it would be much easier to do this with calamari steaks, which are just as easy to find in the store as calamari rings. When I try this recipe, I'll be using calamari steaks.

The grilled calamari rings were served atop basil oil - a bed of green oil on a white rectangular plate that looked like an emerald, holding Mediterranean style seafood. That was half the fun. All around the calamari were capers, chopped (pitted) Kalamata olives, diced tomatoes, and pine nuts. The pine nuts were not toasted.  I am going to toast mine, and add diced red onion and roasted red peppers when I try this recipe.

Finally, pesto sauce topped the grilled calamari.  Every bite was better than the last, it was like eating coastal Italy or Greece or Spain and having ten cardiologists patting you on the back as you indulged.

I haven't tried this yet, but here is what I am going to do...

Take...
Calamari steaks (defrosted if bought frozen)
Coarse grain salt and pepper to taste
EVOO (I assume you need no introduction), maybe Basil Oil if I have some
Chopped Kalamata olives
Diced: tomatoes, red onions, roasted red peppers
Capers
Toasted pine nuts
Pesto sauce (store-bought is just fine, Costco sells a good one)
Lemon slices, of course

Salt and pepper the calamari steaks.
In a pan made for grilling small items on the barbeque or in a stovetop grill pan (the kind with ridges for the grill marks, you know what I mean - Le Creuset makes the best ones), grill the calamari over medium-high heat on both sides until grill marks appear and calamari is cooked through (edges of steaks will turn up, calamari will be firm)
Chop steaks in slices.
To plate, pour some EVOO or basil oil onto plate, lay calamari slices atop oil.
Scatter chopped vegetables, pine nuts and capers around calamari.
Pour pesto sauce over calamari.
Serve with lemon wedges.

I imagine this would be fabulous with tube pasta or crusty bread - a meal for two people, an appetizer for a gathering, a snack to watch the Division Series.

I would not recommend eating this while watching Spongebob...you may start to see your new gourmet creation as Squidward. And I like Squidward.

This could be made a number of different ways, too.  Add diced mango and avocado instead of capers and red peppers, using a cilantro pesto instead of basil. Or make it Thai - chopped peanuts, cucumbers, hot peppers, cilantro infused oil and topped with lime juice. Yum, yum, yum.

I never knew Squidward was so diverse.