Italian Drowned Octopus Antipasto Recipe – Polpo Affogato

Drowned octopus is a slightly more poetic way of saying boiled octopus, and this is one of the standard items in an Italian mixed seafood antipasto. It’s also quite easy to do, and if you have access to good quality fresh octopus you’ll find yourself making it often. To serve about 4 as an antipasto, or more as party food:

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

An octopus weighing about 2 1/4 pounds (1 k)
A medium sized bunch of parsley, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
The juice of a lemon
Extravirgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Toothpicks

Preparation:

Clean the octopus and rinse it well under running water. Put it in a pot with abundant cold water to cover, and set it on a burner. As a general rule, figure an hour of cooking time per kilo of weight of octopus, or about 25 minutes per pound, so here you will need to simmer your octopus for an hour; to check for doneness stick the base of a tentacle with a skewer or toothpick. If it penetrates easily the octopus is done. Turn off the heat and let it cool some in the water it boiled in.

While the octopus is boiling, wash and pat dry the parsley, peel the garlic cloves, and mince the parsley with the garlic.

Drain the octopus, cut it onto bite-sized pieces, and arrange them on a serving dish. Sprinkle the minced herbs over the octopus, followed by the lemon juice, and then a drizzle of olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper, stick the pieces with toothpicks, and serve either warm or cool as you prefer.

Yield: 4-8 servings boiled octopus.