Octopus With Garlic (Polipi Veraci All’aglio)

Servings: 1
Ingredients:

2    Octopus (about 1 1/2 pounds
-each)
1/4 c  Olive oil
5    Cloves garlic, crushed
1    Bay leaf
1/2 ts Cumin seeds
Salt
1 sm Green pepper, chopped
Rosemary leaves and parsley

Cut out the eyes and mouth of the octopus. Remove the ink sac and
internal bone. Cut off the tough points in the tentacles. Put each
octopus on a board and beat them well to break the fibers and make
the meat more tender. Wash them in running water until they are very
white; do not dry but put them in an earthenware dish and season with
oil, flavored with garlic, bay leaf and cumin seeds. Cover the dish
tightly with a sheet of waxed paper or foil tied around the top with
string. Put the dish over a very low heat for 1 to 2 hours,
according to the size of the octopus. When they are tender, drain
them, season with additional oil, salt, green pepper, rosemary leaves
and parsley. Serve in a tureen.

From ‘Feast of Italy’, translated from the Italian edition published
by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1973. Consulting Chef, Giorgio Gioco.
Thomas Crowell, New York. ISBN 0-690-00059-6

It doesn’t make reference to it in the text, but in the pictures of
both these dishes, it shows one or two largish octopi garnished with
rosettes of baby octopi tentacles. I imagine you’d do quite well
using the ‘baby’ octopi like those I see sold around here in the
supermarkets, or even with squid.

Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; September 7 1992.