Grilled Octopus with Charred Potatoes and Romesco

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Servings

4

Timing

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Equipment

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Make-ahead

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Holding

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Leftovers

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Dietary notes

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Method map

21 ingredient lines · 7 method steps

You will be told to put a wine cork in the pot. You will be told to beat the octopus against a rock forty times, or to dunk it three times before it goes in, or to simmer it with a copper penny. The cork is folklore with no mechanism behind it. The rock has an actual basis, since mechanical pounding does break down connective tissue, but it is not what is happening in your kitchen. What genuinely works is slow gentle heat over a long stretch and, before that, a hard freeze, which ruptures the muscle structure and does much of the tenderizing before you ever turn on a burner.

So the plan is dull and reliable. Simmer until a knife slides into the thick part of a tentacle with almost no argument. Cool it in its own liquid. Dry it obsessively. Then grill it hot and fast for color, char, and the crisp curl on the suckers that is the entire reason anyone orders this in a restaurant. Underneath goes a thick romesco spiked with nduja, and a charred lemon on the side to squeeze over the whole plate.

Serves 4 · Prep 25 minutes · simmer 45 to 60 minutes if starting raw · grill 6 minutes, so about 90 minutes total depending on how stubborn your octopus turns out to be.

Ingredients

Octopus

• 2 to 2 1/2 pounds octopus, cleaned, or pre-cooked tentacles
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 to 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 lemon, halved
• Olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika for rubbing, optional

Nduja romesco

• 1 large roasted red bell pepper, peeled, or 1 cup roasted red peppers, drained
• 1/3 cup roasted or toasted almonds
• 1 slice day-old bread, toasted
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 to 2 teaspoons nduja, or Calabrian chili paste
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• Salt

Potatoes and finish

• 1 pound small or baby potatoes, halved
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for grilling
• Kosher salt
• Parsley and extra chopped almonds
• Lemon wedges

Method

Where the time goes

1. 45–60 minSimmer, do not boil
2. Cool it in the liquid
3. Dry it like you have something against it
4. Blend the romesco
5. 20–25 minChar the potatoes and the lemon425°F
6. 2–3 minGrill the octopus hard and briefly
7. Plate

1. Simmer, do not boil. Put the octopus in a pot with the onion, bay, peppercorns, and halved lemon and cover with water. Bring it just barely to a simmer, with lazy bubbles rather than a rolling churn, and cook gently 45 to 60 minutes. Start checking at 45 minutes. A hard boil makes the skin shred off and takes the purple color with it.
2. Cool it in the liquid. Turn off the heat and let the octopus come down to warm in its own broth, which keeps it from tightening as it cools. Drain and cut into large tentacle pieces.
3. Dry it like you have something against it. Pat every piece with paper towels and then lay them on a tray, uncovered, in the fridge for as long as you have. A dry surface is the whole difference between char and steam.
4. Blend the romesco. Pepper, almonds, toasted bread, garlic, sherry vinegar, smoked paprika, nduja, and olive oil into the blender. Pulse to a thick, spoonable, slightly rough sauce and season it. It should taste roasted and gently spicy, never oily.
5. Char the potatoes and the lemon. Toss the halved potatoes with olive oil and salt and either grill them or roast at 425°F for 20 to 25 minutes until tender with blackened cut faces. If your potatoes are large, boil them until just tender first, then halve and oil them so the grill only has to do color. Put the lemon halves cut side down on the hottest part of the grate until they are marked and weeping. For the magic version, toss the potatoes in a third of the romesco here, straight off the heat, and let them stand ten minutes.
6. Grill the octopus hard and briefly. Brush the tentacles with oil and season with salt, pepper, and the smoked paprika if using. Over high heat, 2 to 3 minutes per side, until the edges blister and the suckers crisp. Move them once, turn them once, and get them off.
7. Plate. Sweep the romesco across warm plates, arrange the octopus and potatoes over it, and finish with parsley, chopped almonds, a thread of olive oil, and the grilled lemon for squeezing.

Reading tenderness

The test is a paring knife into the thickest part of a tentacle where it meets the head. Done means it goes in with roughly the resistance of a cooked potato and comes out clean. Anything that pushes back, springs, or grips the blade needs another ten minutes, and then another ten after that if it needs them. Size, age, and species all move this number, which is why the range runs 45 to 60 minutes and why the clock is a suggestion. Federal guidance lists 145°F for fish and shellfish, and cooked octopus should stay refrigerated until it hits the grill if you made it ahead, but understand that temperature and tenderness are unrelated problems here. Octopus passes 145°F in the first few minutes and stays tough for another forty.

Buying octopus without illusions

Nearly every octopus in an American fish case has been frozen once at sea, and that is a feature rather than a compromise, because that freeze is doing real tenderizing work. What you want is a whole cleaned octopus with intact skin, a clean smell of ocean and nothing sour, and firm flesh that does not feel slack or slimy. Spanish and Portuguese octopus tend to be the reliable buys. A serious fishmonger will sometimes sell tentacles already simmered, and taking that shortcut lowers your workload without lowering the ceiling on the dish, provided you dry them properly before they see fire.

Buying them already simmered is not cheating. It is buying back the one hour of this recipe that contains no technique, only patience and a pot, and it is the hour that decides whether dinner happens on a weeknight.

Romesco should have grit

This sauce comes from Tarragona in Catalonia, where fishermen made it to eat with grilled seafood, and the traditional versions are pounded in a mortar rather than whipped smooth. Texture is the point. Keep the almonds a little coarse and the bread visible, and stop the blender while the sauce still looks like something that was made by hand. If it goes fully smooth it turns into a purée that slicks across the plate and stops holding onto the octopus. Hazelnuts in place of almonds is a legitimate swap with a rounder, sweeter result.

The blender is where this sauce usually dies. Ten seconds past coarse and it emulsifies into something the color of salmon mousse that slides off the plate and takes the almonds with it. Pulse, look, stop early. A romesco you can see the almonds in is the one that clings to a tentacle.

Timing this for people

This is a dish for four and a poor one for twelve. Everything but the last six minutes can be finished the day before, and those six minutes cannot start until people are more or less sitting down. Build the evening around the grill; it will not wait for you.

Simmered octopus keeps 2 days cold and the romesco keeps 4, and both are better on day two once the flavors settle. Grill to order, always. Nothing about this dish survives sitting under foil, and the crisp edge you worked for goes soft within about five minutes of leaving the fire.

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