There was a popular restaurant in Washington, DC that served an appetizer called “Grilled Squid Over Creamy Polenta.” I used to love it, unfortunately the restaurant eventually closed.

But I had eaten there often enough to know that dish quite well and I thought it wasn’t too difficult to make at home.

So I did, I needed:

• 8 whole Squid medium size
• Pesto
• Olive oil
• Polenta

First thing I made the polenta. I thought that the white type of polenta would go quite well, maybe even better than the traditional yellow kind. I used the precooked type, and I added some milk at the end to make it creamy. See here about polenta.

The Squid is not that terrible to clean. Well it is not a pleasure either, 😊 but it can be done, see here for clear instructions; How to clean and prepare squid.

Once they were nice & clean, I cut them in stripes lengthwise, and placed them in brochettes, the heads too.

I placed them all nicely aligned in the pan, and I put pesto over them, a little oil too (if needed).

And I grilled in the oven for about ½ hour.

For the presentation–which I think is an important part of cooking and eating–I placed a couple of spoonfuls of creamy polenta on the serving plate, and the brochettes on top of it.

As i said above, it was always served as an appetizer, but it was enough as a main course for me. In this case too, I find it quite fulfilling and it provides relatively low calories. This is one dish that goes under my “good-for-you-food” category.

100 g of Polenta make about 362 calories (85.6% carbohydrates, 6.1% protein, 8.3% fat). While the Squid is about 96 calories each, but it is also full of healthy things (see below).