Italians are great lovers of sea-food eating a wide variety of fish and frutte di mare. The free-swimming molluscs like squid, octopus and cuttlefish appear regularly in the Italian kitchen. For most purposes you can treat them identically, although larger suid and octopus should be boiled before deep-frying, or they will be tough.

Small squid or cuttlefish go under the name of calamari, and the most common means of cooking them is deep-fried in batter.

To make the batter take 100 grammes of flour (1/4 pound) three tablespoons of olive oil, 1/4 pint of luke-warm water and the white of one egg. Stir the oil into the flour and add the salt and water. Keep stirring until the batter is creamy. Leave it to stand for at least an hour and just before using fold in the stiffly whipped egg-white.

Take small squid (the smaller the tenderer) remove the head and tentacles and set aside. From the body sack extract the thin, transparent quill which serves as the creature's skeleton. Rinse the sack under running water to remove any internal grit, rubbing the outer skin all the while which will come off easily. Cutting across the now pearly white sack will produce the rings that we will deep fry.

Dip each ring into the batter fry until golden. Serve them as they are with only a squeeze of lemon.

GRILLED SQUID

Clean the squid as described above, but instead of cutting across the sack cut along only one side so that it opens flat. Make sure it is well-cleaned. Score the inside with diagonal cuts and rub both sides with salt, pepper and oil. Place the scored side down on a hot griddle and cook for one minute. Turn it over and it will curl upward when cooked. Serve this with a coating of chilli oil and chopped fresh chillies.