Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery, parsley and a chilli pepper; sauté them in a large stainless steel or aluminium saucepan with the olive oil. When the mixture has browned, add the cleaned cuttlefish – you need to remove eyes and bone, wash and pat them dry, and cut them into thin strips. Sauté them a little, pour in the wine and stir until it evaporates; add the peeled tomatoes cut into pieces and the finely chopped garlic, season with salt and add another chopper chilli pepper (if you want the dish nice and spicy). In the meanwhile clean and wash the spinach, then cook it in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with just the water left on the leaves – without adding salt or putting the lid on – stirring until it softens. Now add the spinach to the cuttlefish and leave everything to cook for about an hour over a low heat, stirring and checking from time to time: the liquid should reduce and the cuttlefish become tender. If the mixture is already a bit dry and the cuttlefish is not cooked, you can add a little more hot water. Taste again and season with salt if necessary. Turn the heat off and leave to rest for 10 minutes. If you like you can serve your cuttlefish "in zimino" with slices of toasted bread.

This tasty seafood dish has a strong, distinctive flavour, it goes well with a nice glass of red wine.

(1) What does “in zimino” mean in Tuscany? Some suggest that the name originates from the Arabic “zàmin”, meaning “herb sauce”, but maybe the most appropriate version traces it back to the spice cumin (cumino or cimino in Italian), the seeds of which were frequently used in ancient times in Florentine cuisine (although today they are not even found in this recipe).