The bottarga, trust me, is nice and dessicated in my fridge. While I wait for the right occasion to make the spaghetti bottarga (apologies for the delay), I want to show you a classic simple recipe for cooking calamari. Any kind of squid can be used. I used Loligo squid recently and had excellent results. When purchasing the squid, make sure that the skin is not peeling off: it’s a sure sign of freshness.

Start by cleaning the squid. Stick your fingers up in its “head” (yep), and empty it. Then pull the “bone” out. Finally, carve the eyes out. Remove the beak at the intersection of the tentacles. I usually separate the head from the tentacles in this process. Leave the skin on. Then:

1. Make a soffritto with a rosemary branch, a clove of garlic and abundant chilli (it’s meant to be spicy). This means heating up extra-vigin olive oil in a pan on a medium flame, then adding these ingredients to lightly fry without burning;
2. Put the squid on the pan. It takes only 4-5 minutes in total to cook. As soon as it changes colour, pour half glass of white wine (or less) and let it evaporate. Heat should be medium-high.
3. When the wine has evaporated and the 4-5 minutes are over, you are done!

If you find it hard to chew, you might have overcooked it. In that case, you can either get over it, or put it back on the pan and cook it on low heat for another 40 minutes, approximately. After a prolonged time, your squid will be soft again, although it will lose its texture.