Nigel Slater’s midweek dinner: grilled squid, chorizo, spinach

Serves 2. Ready in 30 minutes.

Ask your fishmonger to clean 4 medium-sized squid. Make sure to keep the tentacles. When you get them home, rinse them thoroughly and pat them dry with kitchen paper.

Using a very sharp knife, score the squid flesh first one way then the other, to give a lattice of cuts. (Take care not to cut right through the flesh.) Rub a little olive oil over the flesh, then season lightly with salt.

Cut 150g of chorizo picante into 2cm pieces, then put them in a heavy-based shallow pan over a moderate heat. Let the chorizo ooze some of its fat, then leave it to cook slowly until the cut edges turn golden.

Wash 150g of spinach leaves, removing any tough stalks. If the leaves are large, tear them up a little, then put them into the pan with the chorizo and turn up the heat. Cover with a lid and allow the spinach to wilt and soften.

Meanwhile, heat a griddle pan over a high heat. When it is very hot, place the oiled and seasoned squid on the griddle and press a heavy weight on top. Let it cook for a couple of minutes only, just until the squid is tinged with gold, then turn it over, reapply the weight and continue cooking for a minute or two.

Grind a little black pepper over the squid, then give a good squeeze of lemon. Eat with the fried chorizo and spinach.

• If, after adding the spinach, there is any water in the pan, turn up the heat until it almost entirely evaporates.

• Use mild (dulce) or spicy (picante) “cooking” chorizo as you wish. The spicy version is especially good with the squid.

• But if you do use the spicy version of chorizo, go easy on the black pepper.

Photograph by Jonathan Lovekin