Spaghetti With Octopus Braised In Red Wine Recipes

Steps:

• Put a large pot of well-salted water over high heat and bring to a boil. Add 1 cup wine and turn heat to low.
• Heat olive oil in a wide skillet over medium. Add pancetta to pan and let sizzle for 2 or 3 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
• Raise heat slightly and add onion. Season with salt and pepper and stir to coat. Continue to cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes.
• Add garlic, red-pepper flakes and tomato paste, and stir to distribute. Add bay leaf and all the remaining red wine and turn flame to high. Let wine reduce rapidly by half, about 10 minutes. Turn off heat.
• Bring pasta water back to a boil, add pasta and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes less than the package directions advise - that is, keep the pasta quite firm and underdone. It will finish cooking in the sauce.
• Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water, and drain the pasta. Add pasta to the red wine mixture in the skillet and turn heat to medium-high. Let pasta wilt into the sauce and continue cooking, stirring, as pasta absorbs the sauce. The spaghetti should be correctly al dente within a few minutes and the sauce should coat the pasta. Add a little pasta cooking water if sauce gets too thick.
• Stir in the reserved pancetta, the butter and half the grated cheese and toss well. Taste a noodle, and add a sprinkling of salt to the pan if necessary. Toss once more and transfer to a warm serving dish. Garnish with basil leaves and pass remaining cheese at the table.

Steps:

• In a large casserole combine octopus, carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, salt, pepper, thyme, red wine and water. Bring to a slow boil and simmer 45 minutes, or until octopus is very tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from heat and let octopus cool in its broth.
• Set aside 1 1/3 cups of broth for sauce. When octopus is cool enough to handle, remove it from broth and rub it well to remove purplish skin. Rinse tentacles in broth as they are cleaned. Drain octopus and transfer to a large bowl.
• Make marinade: in a small bowl combine marinade ingredients. Pour over octopus and toss to coat. Marinate, covered and refrigerated, for at least 24 hours, and up to 3 days.
• Make sauce: in a small saucepan combine strained reserved broth, olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar. Reduce by half over high heat. Remove pan from heat and whisk in butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir in parsley. Keep warm.
• Prepare a charcoal broiler. Drain tentacles and pat dry. Grill 4 minutes, turning frequently, until lightly charred and heated through. Serve 2 tentacles per person, with sauce spooned over, garnished with parsley and lemon wedges.

Steps:

• Place 2 tablespoons olive oil in large skillet or saute pan, and turn heat to medium-high. Add carrot, onion and celery. Sprinkle with pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion becomes translucent, about 5 minutes.
• Add octopus, along with some pepper and a little more salt. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, and then add wine, bay leaf and garlic. Cook until octopus is tender, for about 1 hour (check with point of sharp knife). Remove octopus, and cut into bite-size pieces. Return octopus to skillet, and turn heat to a minimum.
• Meanwhile, bring large pot of water to boil, and salt it. Fifteen minutes before eating, begin cooking pasta. When it is barely tender but not nearly tender enough to eat, drain it, reserving about 1 cup cooking liquid. Add pasta to octopus mixture, with half the reserved liquid. Cook until pasta is tender but not mushy; add remaining liquid if needed to keep mixture from drying out.
• Add remaining olive oil, along with butter, cherry tomatoes and basil. Stir until butter melts, and then serve.

Steps:

• Pour 6 tablespoons of the olive oil into the saucepan, and set it over low heat. Scatter the onion slices over the bottom of the pan, and lay the octopuses on top. Scatter the olives over the octopuses, cover the pan, and let the octopuses heat slowly, releasing their liquid, and starting to cook in it. After an hour or so, uncover the pan and check to see that there is plenty of octopus liquid in the pan. If it seems dry, add 1 cup of water at a time. This recipe should yield 2 cups of sauce when the octopus is done.
• Continue the covered slow cooking for another hour, until the octopuses are very tender. Start testing for doneness after 1 3/4 hours: stick the tines of a fork in the thickest part of each octopus; when the fork slides out easily, the meat is done.
• Remove the octopuses from the pot, and let them cool slightly. To make a meaty octopus sauce, cut both octopuses into 3/4-inch chunks, skin and all (or you can leave the octopuses whole for serving). Measure the liquid remaining in the saucepan. Again, you should have about 2 cups total. If the volume is greater, return the juices to the saucepan and boil to reduce it. Put the cut octopus meat and the juices in the skillet for dressing the pasta.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil (at least 6 quarts water with 1 tablespoon salt). Drop in the spaghetti, stirring and separating the strands. Cover the pot, return the water to a boil over high heat, then set the cover ajar and cook the pasta until barely al dente.
• As the spaghetti cooks, bring the octopus meat and sauce in the skillet to a rapid simmer; taste, and add 1/4 teaspoon salt if needed (octopus is naturally salty). Stir in the parsley.
• Lift the spaghetti from the pot, drain briefly, and drop it into the skillet. Toss the pasta and the simmering sauce together for a minute or two, until the spaghetti is nicely coated with sauce and perfectly al dente, and the octopus chunks are distributed throughout the pasta. Turn off the heat, drizzle over the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and toss again. Heap the spaghetti into warm bowls, making sure each portion gets plenty of octopus pieces, and serve immediately.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put the oil, garlic and hot pepper in a large, deep skillet.
• When the water boils, add the pasta; turn the heat under the skillet to high. Cook the pasta as usual, stirring. As soon as the garlic begins to brown, sprinkle it with salt and pepper to taste and add three-quarters of the bottle of wine (a little more than two cups); bring to a boil and keep it there.
• When the pasta beings to bend--after less than five minutes of cooking--drain it and add it to the wine mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, adding wine a little at a time if the mixture threatens to dry out completely.
• Taste the pasta frequently. When it is done--tender but with a little bite--stir in the butter and turn off the heat. When the butter glazes the pasta, serve it immediately.

Steps:

• Place 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the carrot, onion, and celery. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes translucent, about 5 minutes.
• Add the octopus along with some pepper and a little more salt. Cook, stirring, for a minute, then add the wine, bay leaf, and garlic. Cook until the octopus is tender, about an hour (check with the point of a sharp knife). Remove the octopus and cut it into bite-sized pieces, then return it to the skillet; turn the heat to a minimum.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Fifteen minutes before eating, begin to cook the pasta. When it is barely tender-but not nearly tender enough to eat-drain it, reserving about 1 cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the octopus mixture, along with half the reserved cooking water. Cook until the pasta is tender but not mushy, adding the remaining cooking water if necessary to keep the mixture from drying out.
• Add the remaining olive oil, along with the cherry tomatoes. Cook for another minute, taste and adjust the seasoning, then stir in the basil and serve.