2 garlic cloves
handful of flat-leaf parsley
handful of basil
breadcrumbs made from stale bread (a quantity equal to the chopped-up squid tentacles and reserved bodies—so for a handful of squid, you need a handful of breadcrumbs)
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
To serve:
8 slices of ciabatta bread
1 garlic clove, halved
a little extra-virgin olive oil
a few basil leaves
Make the stuffing by putting the anchovies, oil, garlic and herbs into a food processor and processing until finely chopped, then adding the chopped tentacles and extra squid bodies, together with the breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Do not add any seasoning at this point. Pulse until the mixture will come together in your hands without being too sticky.
Since both the squid and the Parmesan are quite salty, you need to check whether any extra salt is needed, so take a small amount of the stuffing mixture and cook it quickly in a non-stick pan; taste and season with salt if necessary. Otherwise, just add a twist of black pepper.
Stuff the squid pockets with the mixture – not too full, or they will burst during cooking – then close up and secure the openings with cocktail sticks.
Put the olive oil, diced tomatoes and basil into a pan with a large base set over a low heat and warm through without boiling. Season to taste.
Brush the squid with a little oil, then heat a griddle pan or heavy-based frying pan until smoking. (If the pan isn’t hot enough, the squid will boil – leaching out its liquid, which will make it tough and flavourless.) Don’t overcrowd the pan or griddle – cook no more than 4 squid at a time. You need enough space around each one to enable you to turn it over into a spare hot space, so that once again you can make sure it sears rather than boils. Chargrill or grill quickly (about a minute on each side) until the squid begin to mark if on a griddle or take on a bit of colour if in a frying pan.
Remove the cocktail sticks and add the squid pockets to the pan of sauce. Move them around gently, taking care not to break them. Really, you just need to leave the squid in the sauce long enough to release some of the juices from the stuffing that will have gathered inside the pockets, so they can blend with the tomato, basil and oil – but don’t leave the squid in for too long, or it will become rubbery.
Chargrill or sauté the slices of ciabatta on both sides until crisp, then rub with the garlic clove and drizzle with oil.
Serve the squid in its sauce in bowls, garnished with basil leaves and with the bread on the side.
Insalata di seppia alla griglia Chargrilled cuttlefish salad
Cuttlefish are bigger than squid and have larger ‘bones’ that often get made into earrings. They also have a little sac inside the body containing a sweet-tasting black ink, which they squirt at enemies in self-defence, and which we use in this recipe. Clean the cuttlefish in the same way as squid (see page 100), being very careful not to puncture the ink sac – just pull it out whole. Sometimes the sac will have emptied when the cuttlefish was caught, so it is best to buy a little packet or jar of ink, which your fishmonger will sell separately, just in case you find there is no ink inside.
With this sauce, we try to bring out the sweetness and full flavours of both the ink and the onion. To do this you need to cook the onion very slowly and gently. as if it burns, the sauce will taste bitter. Also, when you finish off the sauce after straining it, use a straight-sided pan because you need to keep a low flame just underneath the base. It is very important that the heat doesn’t spread around the sides of the pan because, again, if you overheat it the sauce will turn bitter. The sauce can also be used for risotto and pasta.
1kg cuttlefish, cleaned (see above), heads reserved
olive oil, for brushing
1 garlic clove
handful of flat-leaf parsley
4 handfuls of mixed peppery salad leaves (or just mizuna, if you can get it)
3 tablespoons Oil and lemon dressing (see page 52)
salt and pepper
For the cuttlefish sauce:
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
4 onions, sliced
about 1 tablespoon cuttlefish ink
1 litre fish stock
salt and pepper
To make the sauce, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil very gently in a small, straight-sided pan, add the onions, then cover and sweat slowly for about 15 minutes until softened but not coloured.
Add the cuttlefish heads and cook uncovered, still very gently, until the juices released by the cuttlefish have completely evaporated.
Add the ink and fish stock, stir until well mixed and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Pass through a fine sieve into a clean small, straight-sided pan, pressing and squeezing the onions and heads to extract all the juices.
Bring the sieved liquid to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens and becomes very syrupy. Cover and keep warm.
Cut the cuttlefish into pieces roughly 8 x 10cm, score diagonally each way to make a diamond pattern and season with salt and pepper. Brush with a little olive oil.
Crush the garlic with the back of a knife, put the parsley on top and chop it all together, to mix well.
Cook the cuttlefish in 2 batches. Preheat a dry griddle pan or a heavy-based frying pan until hot and smoking (otherwise the fish will just boil in its own juices). Sprinkle the cuttlefish with the garlic and parsley mixture, put it into the pan and cook for about 30 seconds on one side, then 30 seconds on the other. As with squid, be very careful not to overcook it, or it will become tough.
Season the salad with salt and pepper, toss with the Oil and lemon dressing and arrange it in the centre of 4 serving plates. Quickly beat the rest of the oil into the sauce and spoon it around the salad. Place the chargrilled cuttlefish on top of the salad and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.
Gamberi e borlotti Prawns with fresh borlotti beans
This is based on the dish my grandmother used to make with gamberi rossi, the beautiful pink prawns that come in from Liguria. Sometimes, if we are lucky, we can get them in London, but otherwise we use large Mediterranean prawns, or you could use tiger prawns. Of course, cooking in a restaurant is different from the way my grandmother worked at home, boiling up the beans while we waited, and then dipping the prawns into the pot at the last minute. So we have adapted the dish so that everything can be ready in advance and you have only to sauté the prawns and bring everything together in five minutes.
The fresh sweet chillies that we use are quite large – long, thin and not too spicy – not the tiny ones