Polvo à Lagareiro (Roast Octopus with Punched Potatoes)
- Prep
- 20 min
- Total
- 1 h 40 min
- servings
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Polvo à lagareiro is octopus cooked until tender and then roasted with punched potatoes, garlic and a generous amount of olive oil. The tips of the tentacles crisp, the inside stays soft, and the oil in the dish becomes the sauce. Only one part is tricky: cooking the octopus right.
Recipe
Polvo à Lagareiro
Octopus simmered gently until tender, then roasted with punched potatoes, garlic and plenty of olive oil until the tips of the tentacles crisp. A festive dish that is simple to make.
Ingredients
For the octopus
For the potatoes and the oven
Method
Cooking the octopus
- 1Thaw the octopus in the fridge for 24 hours. Rinse it well in cold water.
- 2Bring a large pot of water to a boil with the unpeeled onion and the bay leaf. Holding the octopus by the head, dip it into the boiling water three times, for a few seconds each time, until the tentacles curl. Then leave it in the pot.
- 3Turn the heat down so the water simmers gently and cook for 40 to 50 minutes. It's done when a fork goes easily into the thickest part of a tentacle.
- 4Turn off the heat, add the fine salt and let the octopus rest in the water for 10 minutes. Drain.
Punched potatoes
- 5While the octopus cooks, heat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F). Wash the potatoes well without peeling them, toss them in the coarse salt and spread them on a baking tray.
- 6Roast for 40 to 45 minutes, until soft inside.
- 7Brush off the salt and, protecting your palm with a cloth, give each potato a punch to split it open without breaking it apart.
Roasting à lagareiro
- 8Turn the oven up to 220 °C (425 °F). Separate the tentacles and cut the head into pieces. Arrange the octopus in a clay or ovenproof dish with the potatoes around it.
- 9Heat the olive oil with the sliced garlic over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes, just until the garlic starts to turn golden.
- 10Pour the oil and garlic over the octopus and potatoes and season with pepper.
- 11Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tips of the tentacles are browned.
- 12Sprinkle with the parsley and serve very hot, spooning the olive oil from the dish over each plate.
Tender octopus
Tough octopus almost always comes from two things: it wasn’t frozen, or it boiled hard. Keep the water at a gentle simmer. Time depends on size: a 1.5 kg octopus takes 40 to 50 minutes, a 2.5 kg one can need an hour. Don’t trust the clock alone; push a fork into the thickest part of a tentacle, and if it goes in without resistance, it’s done. Overcooked octopus loses its skin and falls apart.
Dipping the octopus three times in the boiling water before leaving it to cook is an old habit. It curls the tentacles and helps the skin stay on, which makes a better-looking dish.
In a pressure cooker, cook it for 15 to 20 minutes once the valve starts to turn, with the same onion and bay leaf and just enough water to cover.
The olive oil and garlic
“À lagareiro” means in the style of the people who work at the olive press (lagar). Olive oil is the main seasoning, so use an extra virgin you like. Warming the garlic in the oil before pouring it over flavors everything evenly; if the garlic goes too brown, it turns bitter.
Octopus at Christmas
In many homes in the north, especially in the Minho and Trás-os-Montes, octopus shares the Christmas Eve table with salt cod, either boiled with potatoes and greens or roasted à lagareiro, as here.
