Octopus Salad: the great recipe for a Mediterranean seafood appetizer

The octopus salad is a seafood appetizer typical of Mediterranean cuisine. It is a fresh and tasty dish prepared with pieces of octopus, boiled in flavored water, and then dressed with extra virgin olive oil, parsley, lemon juice and salt.

You can serve the octopus salad with a side dish of boiled potatoes, vegetables or a crunchy salad. It is perfect for a thousand different occasions, as aperitifs or buffets, but also as a main course or topping for bruschetta or sandwiches.

Cooking the octopus is the most important step in this recipe because it determines the right texture and, therefore, the perfect outcome of the dish. So, it's best to choose a good quality octopus, characterized by a double row of suckers on the tentacles as it has softer flesh and a more delicate flavor. In any case it is important that the octopus is very fresh and has a very lively and intense color in all its nuances.

For the preparation, it is necessary to calculate about 40 minutes of cooking for every kg of weight of the octopus. If you prefer, you can boil the octopus in plain water, without flavoring it, but with a nice dressing it will be much tastier and more aromatic.

Tips

To check the cooking of the octopus you can insert the tines of a fork into the tentacles and see if it enters without resistance.

If you like, you can enrich it with some olives, desalted capers, rocket, chopped carrots and sliced ​​celery.

How to store Octopus Salad

Octopus salad can be stored at room temperature for a few hours, in the refrigerator for 2-3 days in a hermetically sealed glass container.

It can be frozen if you have used a fresh product.

How to make Octopus Salad

Rinse the octopus under cold running water (1).

Make sure the head is clean and empty, then blot with absorbent kitchen paper (2).

Prepare a pot full of water and add a stick of celery, a chopped carrot, a bay leaf and a clove of garlic (3). Add salt and bring to a boil.

When the water boils, dip the octopus tentacles 3-4 times by lowering and raising it without immersing it completely (4).

This step will make the octopus meat more tender (5).

After 3-4 passages the octopus tentacles will curl (6) and you can dip it entirely in boiling water.

Cook the octopus over very low heat, the water should simmer gently for about 40 minutes (7).

Drain it in a bowl of ice water to stop cooking (8).

Transfer the octopus to a cutting board and cut it into not too small pieces (9).

A couple of cm length will be okay (10).

Finely chop the parsley with a knife (11).

Transfer the octopus to a serving dish and season with the extra virgin olive oil (12).

Also add the lemon juice (13).

Add salt and flavor with the chopped parsley (14).

Mix everything to blend the flavors (15).

Serve the octopus salad warm or cold (16).