this recipe yields calamari lighter in color than most restaurant versions, so keep this in mind when frying. follow the cooking time, not the color, and you will have perfectly cooked squid. while we love the texture and visual appeal of the tentacles, not everyone does; most fishmongers will gladly sell only bodies if you so desire. before slicing the squid, check the bodies for beaks the fishmonger might have missed. they look and feel like pieces of transparent plastic. for a specialty native to federal hill, the italian neighborhood in providence, rhode island, toss the fried calamari with thinly sliced rings of jarred pepperoncini. the spicy bite of the peppers and the tanginess of the brine are surprisingly good with fried squid. for the best results, clip a candy/deep-fry thermometer to the side of the saucepan to monitor the temperature of the oil.