In our New York neighborhood, when the gray skies of winter give way to summer, “we like to live outdoors as much as possible and involve a grill whenever we can,” said Frank Falcinelli, Frank Castronovo, and Peter Meehan in The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual (Artisan). Our Brooklyn restaurant, Frankies Spuntino, takes its name from an Italian term meaning a snack “or a place to eat them”—and a backyard is as good a place for a spuntino as any.
When we get it right, a cookout can last all day, with everything from meat to vegetables making their way onto the grill as we sip crisp wines or cooling beers. Try adding squid—“what the people we grew up around call ‘calamar’”— to the lineup.
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Grilled Squid
5 pounds squid, cleaned
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ cup olive oil, plus more as needed
Fine sea salt
¼ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
Juice of at least 1 lemon, maybe 2
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
Get the fire in your grill atomic-hot. In large bowl, toss cleaned squid in chopped garlic and olive oil. Grill in batches so as not to crowd the grill. Squid should take only about 60 to 90 seconds to cook; have a clean bowl on hand for cooked squid.
When the first batch hits heat, watch: Like Ball Park franks, they plump when you cook ’em. When they flail, flop, or wiggle, it means they’re ready to be flipped or removed from the grill. The squid typically makes a bit of a mess of the grill grate; clean with a stiff metal grill brush between batches (and right after the whole batch is done).
Hit bowl of cooked squid with a couple of generous tablespoons of salt, then remove the hoods of the squid to a cutting board. Slice into rings and return to bowl. Add olive oil, parsley, and juice of 1 lemon. Toss well and taste. Add more salt, oil, and lemon as needed. Season heavily with black pepper and serve warm, or at whatever temperature it is outside. Feeds about a dozen.
Grilled Vegetables
2 meaty eggplants, with alternating vertical strips made by a vegetable peeler
2 each yellow and green zucchini
1 red onion
2 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
Cut eggplants and zucchini into pinky-thick slices. Cut red onion into nice thick disks that won’t fall apart on the grill. Core and seed peppers and quarter them. Combine vegetables, garlic, olive oil, and salt in gigantic mixing bowl. Toss to coat.
Grill over medium-hot to kinda-getting-to-the-point-when-we-should-replenish-the-coals-hot fire (up to 45 minutes). Flip vegetables a couple of times, until tender but not at all mushy. Pile on a platter and serve warm or at ambient temperature. Serves 6 or so.
