Happy Hour: Emiko Davies' Recipes for Venetian Bites

Cicchetti are a way of life in Venice. Think of these bits as appetizers, appetizers, hors d'oeuvres, or (if you must) compare them to Spanish tapas.

They are usually small enough to eat in one or two bites; you can hold them with one hand while the other holds a spritz. Typical cicchetti include hot and cold dishes, lots of seafood - for which the lagoon city is known - and meat, eggs, salumi and vegetables.

Moscardini col sedano (baby octopus with celery )

This is a crisp and refreshing dish, with a delicious crunch. You can add boiled potatoes, fresh halved cherry tomatoes or pickled black olives. But I appreciate the simplicity of this two-ingredient salad.

The octopus should be cleaned before use. If purchased frozen, they have usually already been cleaned. If it's fresh, you can ask your fishmonger to do it, or to do it at home, just remove the beak, cut out the eyes, empty the head and rinse thoroughly.

Makes 6

3 medium-sized baby octopus (about 500g)2 celery stalks, leaves and all, minced finely2 tbsp olive oilJuice of ½ lemonGrilled polenta, to serve

< p class="dcr-3jlghf">Bring a pot of water (deep enough to cover the octopus) to boil. Some like to make the tentacles very curly; to do this, dip the octopus in boiling water up to the tentacles, then take it out and repeat two or three times until the tentacles are rolled up. Drop octopus into boiling water, reduce heat to simmer and cook over low-medium heat until very tender (a fork should pierce easily), about 45 minutes.

< p class="dcr-3jlghf">Remove from the water and when cool enough to handle, remove the skin (which may be a bit gelatinous). Rinse then coarsely chop each octopus, separating the tentacles.

Place in a bowl. Add the celery and its leaves with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, adjusting the seasoning to your taste, then mix. Serve with grilled polenta.

Branzino marinato al cumino (salted sea bass with cumin)