We can make this dish even better, if we roast the tentacles for just 2 minutes in a very hot oven or even on a very hot grill!
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 5€ pp)
- Salt
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 octopus tentacles
- 320 g spaghetti
- 2 medium already roasted tomatoes
- 1/2 large or one small roasted pepper, peeled and cut in dice
- EV olive oil
- 1 small onion, cut in dice
- 12 Kalamata (or other black) olives, pitted (by us) and cut in pieces
- 500 ml fish stock
- Coarse black pepper
- Fresh mint
This is an astonishing pasta dish, ideal for springtime, very tasty and, also, very attractive. The only thing we need is having already roasted tomatoes and peppers. I suggest that, especially during summers, when we use our oven, we also roast some veggies (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, zucchini) and keep them in our fridge for every use.
We, first of all boil the octopus. Some cooks advise that we must immerge the octopus into already boiled water. I don’t agree with them as this way disforms the octopus exterior part.
So, we simmer the octopus in – initially cold – salty water with the bay leaf, till very very tender. We cut the upper part of the tentacles (about 20% of the whole tentacle length) and we mince it in very small dice.
We sub-fry the onions in olive oil and we add the octopus dice. We add the roast tomatoes already peeled and chopped, the fish stock and a little bit of salt and we cook, till we create a sauce. We then add the roasted pepper and the olives.
We boil the pasta till al dente and we “mantecate” it in the pan with the sauce. We put in plates, adding a tentacle, fresh mint and coarse black pepper.
