A perfect summer dish that can be served as a starter or as a main course. It pares beautifully with ice cold white or sparkling wine. A Sardinian Vermentino would be a perfect match!
Ingredients
Octopus 1.2kg, I used frozen octopus for this recipe
Onion 1/2
3 medium potatoes, boiled
Celery
Carrots
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
Method
Dip the frozen octopus in a large pot with plenty of cold water. Add half an onion, a celery stalk, a carrot and 5/6 whole peppercorns.
Cover the pot with a lid and start the heat. Cook the octopus gently for 45 minutes since the water start to boil. Before removing from the heat, check if the octopus is tender with a fork.
Let it cool inside its water. In the meantime, start preparing the rest of the ingredients: cut the boiled potatoes into cubes and add the julienned carrot and celery. Remove the octopus from the water. Remove some of the skin and tentacles and chop into small pieces. Add the potatoes, the carrots, the celery and the chopped parsley. Add the olive oil and the lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper.
Notes: Be careful when seasoning, the octopus is quite salty already. Also as strange as it may seem, I always add a wine cork to the octopus boiling water. In Sardinia they say that this makes the octopus softer. Not sure if true or not, but if I have a spare wine cork, I always dip it into the water!