Octopus Salad

Ingredients, 4 servings

Method

Clean the octopus. Cut the head off above the eyes, and slit the head open. Rinse out the guts, and remove the connective tissue. Make another cut below the eyes, to separate them from the tentacles, and toss those away. Remove the beak with a knife.
Peel the carrots and chop them together with the celery stick.
Fill a stockpot with cold water and drop in the chopped vegetables, the garlic, the laurel leafs salt and pepper.
Once the water starts to boil, curly the tentacles’ tips by lowering them in the water for 4 to 5 times.
Place the octopus head and its tentacles in the stockpot, cover and cook for approximately 30 to 35 minutes (20-25 mins per 500g).
Before taking it out of the water, check its tenderness by poking it with a fork.
Once out of the water, immerse it in a bath of iced water to prevent overcooking.
Bring the octopus on a chopping board and cut it into pieces.
Place the chopped octopus into a large bowl and add the juice of one lemon, chopped parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix everything together.
Finely slice the remaining lemons and use those slices to create a bed for the octopus salad.

This recipes is an adaptation of “Insalata di polpo prezzemolata” available here.

Marco Del Vecchio