Sautéed Calamari

I've always seen calamari on menus as grilled or fried. I went to dinner at Supper last year on the Lower East Side and they had sauteed calamari. It was delicious and I've been making my own ever since. (Calamari is cheap and it cooks in no time.) It's a great appetizer or side dish and it seems impressive but is super easy. Last weekend I had some chorizo grease left in a pan and I thought it would go really well will calamari--it was a hit. Any time you make chorizo, save the grease for calamari! (I used leftover from the chorizo for a grilled pizza.)

Ingredients:
2 calamari, cleaned (or more if you have more people), sliced into thin rings
grease leftover from sauteeing loose chorizo in olive oil
1 clove of garlic

Directions:
Heat up the leftover grease and add the garlic (on high heat.) Sautee it until fragrant. Then add the sliced calamari and toss it all together. Cook until the calamari looks opaque, only 1-2 minutes. You really don't want to over cook it because it will get rubbery.
Take them out of the pan and serve.

(If you don't have chorizo grease, you can just use olive oil and add a bunch of crushed red pepper flakes.)

Grilled Pizza

Grilled pizza is a great thing to do in the summer with a group of people. Last weekend was unseasonably warm and I was out in Long Island with a few friends, so I thought we should try a grilled pizza. We had a couple of other things in the works for dinner, so we just made one and had it as an appetizer, but it's fun to split the dough up and have everyone do their own--picking sauce and toppings etc. We made our own dough, but you can buy it too. You can often find fresh pizza dough in the bakery section of your grocery store, or you can get frozen pizza dough. I use Mario Batali's recipe for pizza dough. The honey gives it a nice sweetness and the wine adds a little flavor. (Jamie made the dough--it's his specialty.) I made a quick sauce, but you can buy pizza sauce too. We just put chorizo on top, which was really good and gave it a kick, but use any toppings you want. (Use the chorizo if you want to make the calamari after.)

Dough:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html

Sauce:
1 can whole tomatoes and their juices (cut or squeezed into chunks)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 sprig thyme
olive oil

Topping:
Mozzarella cheese, sliced
loose Chorizo
finely grated Pecorino Romano

Directions:
First, make the dough and let it rise. Then make the sauce: In a medium sized skillet, sautee the onion with olive oil until it started to soften, then add the garlic and stir until it is fragrant. Once you smell the garlic, add the tomatoes (to keep the garlic from burning) and the thyme. Stir it all together and let it simmer until the sauce is thick.

For the chorizo, heat a little olive oil in a skillet and add the loose sausage. Break it up with a wooden spoon while it cooks so it's in bite-sized pieces. When it's just cooked through, remove the pieces with a splotted spoon and put them in a bowl. (Leave the chorizo grease in there if you want to make the calamari.)

Turn on the grill and let it heat up. When the dough has risen, roll it out to whatever thinness you want (I think thinner is better, especially for the grill.) Rub a little olive oil on one side of the dough and put the dough on the grill, oil side down. Let it cook until the dough just holds its shape, about 1-2 minutes. Take the dough off of the grill and and dress the grilled side. (It should have some nice grill marks.) Spread the sauce over the dough, then add the mozzarella, then the chorizo. Before you put it back on the grill, sprinkle it with a little Pecorino Romano. Put it back on the grill and close the lid. This will melt the cheese while the bottom of the crust firms up. This can take from 3-7 minutes, depending on the size of the pizza and heat of the grill etc. You just want your cheese melted--the dough will cook quickly.

Take it off the grill and let it sit for a minute, then slice it up!