Cuttlefish

Soupia is thicker, denser and sweeter than squid, and a Greek kitchen treats it quite differently: almost always braised rather than fried, and given the long slow cooking its heavier flesh needs. Like squid and mussels it is permitted on the strictest Orthodox fasting days, which is why it appears so regularly on a Lenten table through the spring.

Soupies me spanaki, cuttlefish stewed with spinach, dill and a little white wine, is the dish it is best known for, and cuttlefish cooked in its own ink with rice is the other. The ink sac sits inside the body and can either be reserved for that black sauce or thrown away, but it bursts very easily during cleaning.

Cuttlefish is usually sold already cleaned, which is worth accepting, since the cuttlebone, the ink sac and the internal grit make it a messier job than squid. Frozen cuttlefish is perfectly good here, and freezing helps tenderise it in the same way it does for octopus, so there is no real advantage in insisting on fresh.