Mmm, octopus. In her classic book, Flavours of Greece, Rosemary Barron suggests that the cephalopod be lightly grilled over charcoal, having first been boiled, peeled and marinated in olive oil, lemon juice and oregano. Its ink sac, meanwhile, may be roasted inside an aubergine or the skin of an onion. Serve both as a meze, perhaps with a cold glass of ouzo, or as a main course with a salad of greens and a peppy bottle of red.
Delicious! Except… Oh, dear. Un-squeamish, unfussy and unsentimental as I am, having watched Anna Fitch’s documentary (22 August, 9pm), in which a professor of marine biology called David Scheel decides to keep an octopus called Heidi in his sitting room, I do not think I will be eating this particular mollusc again at any point in the near future. Henceforth, as the air fills with the scent of briny white flesh, I will think of Heidi’s surprisingly human-looking eye, fixed with unexpected fondness on Scheel and his teenage daughter Laurel (and sometimes even on their television set – tuned, naturally, to something informative by David Attenborough), and my stomach will shrivel at the merest thought of chewing on a delicate, suckered leg.
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