Sepia a la Plancha con Allioli

Sepia a la plancha con allioli belongs to Catalonia's Mediterranean coast: thick, scored cuttlefish browned hard on the planxa, the iron griddle, with a mortar-made sauce of raw garlic and olive oil beside it. This isn't sepia guisada, softened slowly with peas or potatoes, and it isn't destined for a dark rice. Here the pleasure is the clean, sweet flesh against browned edges and fierce garlic.

One thing decides the dish: the cuttlefish must be very dry and the iron fiercely hot. I dry it twice, oil the fish rather than the pan, and cook in small batches. That keeps the surface against the metal long enough to color before released water can collect underneath. Salt it after cooking, not before. The whole method fits in the margin of my recipe: dry twice, crowd nothing.

Fresh cuttlefish is excellent when it smells clean and feels firm, but good frozen cuttlefish, thawed slowly in the refrigerator, is far better than tired fresh fish. If you can't find it, use cleaned squid. Squid is thinner and less meaty, so cook it for only 45 to 60 seconds per side and expect a softer bite. No hace falta haber pisado España. Get the iron hot, keep the batches small, and it comes out.