Cuttlefish with Wine- Luxe, Calme, et Volupte

Painting, poem? No, not this time. What is luxurious, calm, and voluptuous? It is the humble cuttlefish, bathed in a sauce of a few very simple things- supple, yielding onion, olive oil, a spoonful of tomato paste, whole allspice, bay leaves, a glass of wine. The bay leaves add depth and elusivness- as soon as you try to identify them, they duck discretely out of sight for a moment. Is borrowing a title from Baudelaire-via-Matisse a stretch for a dish of this obscure cephalopod? Oh, not at all- infused with the mysteries of wine and bay leaves, the exotic fragrance of allspice, these hunks of deep frozen unassuming and very inexpensive cuttlefish do become very, very luxe, A dish of few things, so resistant to going amiss, ready in a quarter of an hour, or content to simmer gently as you linger over a good story- this is nothing if not calme. As to the silky mouth feel of the sauce, if the word volupte were not already at hand, we would have to invent it. Are these very grand claims? Try the dish and see. If there were a single dish that embodies the refinement and subtlety of Greek cuisine, the complexity of experience- aromatic and textural- that can come from a handful of the most basic pantry items, this is the very dish.

We need, simply:

2 large onions

120 ml/ 1/2 C olive oil (do not worry- this is not a heavy dish. The oil will float entirely free at the end)

2 or 3 bay leaves

8 or 10 whole allspice berries

2 large spoonfuls of tomato paste

a glass of red wine

450 g/ a pound of cuttlefish, in squares, thawed if frozen.

First we'll saute the onions, sliced as we like- perhaps not too thinly, stir it around over medium heat until many of the onions are golden and some are translucent, and add the allspice and the bay leaves:

Next we add the cuttlefish pieces:

give them a moment to sweat, and then add the tomato paste, and the red wine:

Add some salt and some freshly ground pepper, and cover at a low simmer to give the cuttlefish a chance to soften. After 10 minutes or so, uncover and let the excess liquid slowly evaporate, stirring from time to tie. As it simmers, the oil will start to float free, and the wine divides its colors in the loveliest way- all the orange-reds going to the oil, and all the purple-mahogany going to the cuttlefish itself. 

Here is our finished dish- glossy with fragrant orange oil:

It is an elegant dish- silky, delicate, that oil vivid with flavor and color. The bay and allspice linger. Not content to relinquish themselves entirely the whole, the onions melt on the tongue. Our cuttlefish- still snowy white at its core- keeps pure the gentle sweet flavors of the sea.