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ITALIAN FOOD RECIPES 

  Recipes  for octopus

Octopus Vulgaris

The octopus, widespread and fished all over the world, is the cephalopod more known to the divers: it is rather easy to meet it also in shallow waters, in small caves, or in very narrow slits of underwater rocks. Octopus feeds basically with small crustaceans and small fishes caught with its arms in the sand, breaking them with its strong beak. The body, entirely without bones, can reach a length of about 5 feet (1,5 meters) and has changing color for defending itself from enemies, going from beige to white. It has 8 arms bearing strong suction cups. The eyes are at the front part of the head.

In commerce  the octopus is available either fresh or frozen and of big or small sizes (polipetti). The fresh octopus is flabby and a little viscid, with a fresh and light smell, the viscera must be thick and  pale.

The easiest way for cleansing octopus consists in separating the head from the body, then cut the body with scissors and eviscerate, and remove the eyes and the beak from the head. So done rinse the octopus under running cold water.

For softening the octopus meat you can beat with a meat pounder or freeze for one night and cook without defrosting. You can also buy frozen octopus.

Due to its hard meat the octopus requires a rather long cooking time, from 20 up to 40 minutes, depending from the size. Better cooking octopus combined with acid elements, useful for softening, like lemon or wine.

Italian recipes with octopus

Here below all the recipes for octopus and recipes with octopus as complementary ingredient

italian octopus salad MAIN COURSE		easy recipe with octopus with pesto genovese sauce	4
garganelli with octopus and blue mussels sauce FIRST COURSE		a tasty and easy recipe with octopus for the garganelli	3
risotto alla pescatora   FIRST COURSE		The risotto alla pescatora is a traditional and widespread recipe with octopus. We propose one of the most classic and coded recipes.	2
sea salad STARTER		A traditional recipe with octopus, always agreeable: the sea salad is very easy to cook  at home	1

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