The first time I tasted this saucy dish of squid and mushrooms was at a restaurant that sits directly on a pretty, pebble-covered beach between Porto Ercole and Porto Santo Stefano, and it struck me how perfectly symbolic of Argentario this dish was, with that strange but wonderful combination of mare e monti, or ‘sea and mountains’. It reminds me of a Japanese saying that my mother taught me to appreciate, that the perfect meal should include something from the sea and something from the mountains. And there are plenty of other wonderful combinations of local sea and mountain dishes in the Maremma – octopus cooked with red wine and chestnuts is another intriguing one.
You would normally prepare this with seppie (cuttlefish), which are large, warm-water-loving creatures popular in many cuisines of the Mediterranean, but calamari (squid) and calamaretti (baby squid) are similar and easier to find. This is usually served as part of antipasto (with plenty of bread to mop up the juices) but you could double the recipe and serve it as a main, or even use this as a sauce to go with pasta.