Ingredients
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2 lbs octopus, thawed if frozen
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1 cup red wine
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1 medium onion, chopped fine
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1 bay leaf
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1/2 cinnamon stick (or 1/2 tsp ground)
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3 cups diced fresh tomatoes or 3 cups canned tomatoes, diced
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1/4 cup olive oil
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1/2 lb similar type like ziti pasta or 1/2 lb penne
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1 1/2 tablespoons butter
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1 garlic clove, minced
Instructions
- Rinse the octopus under cold, running water and place in pot dripping wet (you don't want to dry it off - this is the moisture it will cook in).
- Add the red wine, garlic, onion, bay leaf and cinnamon and cover the pot.
- Bring to the boil over low heat.
- It is tender when pierced easily with a fork (this can vary from octopus to octopus, so time is not a good indicator of doneness in this case).
- Remove the octopus and let cool until cool enough to handle and cut into bite-size pieces.
- Meanwhile, in pot you have cooked the octopus in, add tomatoes and olive oil. Boil for 8-10 minutes to bind the sauce.
- Stir in the cut octopus and nearly-cooked macaroni and simmer for the remaining 3-4 minutes required to cook your macaroni (if mixture appears too dry, add some of the pasta cooking water - you want this quite 'moist' but not soupy).
- Stir in butter. Remove bay leaf and cinnamon stick.
- Note: I use digitali pasta for this, but I can't get it into the ingredient list with the new Zaar format.
- Bon Appetit.