OCTOPUS BRAISED IN RED WINE, TOMATO & OLIVES WITH SAFFRON PAPPARDELLE

Serves 4

I love this dish as the octopus braises and becomes incredibly meaty tasting. It’s the perfect marriage with the red wine and it becomes so intense and complex. Just a great dish.

SAFFRON PAPPARDELLE

300 g (10½ oz/2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 x 55 g (2 oz) eggs

pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 1 tablespoon hot water

Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Place the eggs and saffron water in a bowl and beat together with a fork. Pour into the flour well and, using a spoon, combine with the flour. Tip onto a floured surface and, using your hands, bring the dough together and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes to rest.

Roll the pasta through a pasta machine to around 1.5 mm (¹⁄₁₆ inch) thick. Divide the dough into 2 pieces. Roll each piece through the pasta machine, starting at the widest setting, until 1.5 mm (¹⁄₁₆ inch) thick. Roll up the pasta sheet and cut into 25 cm x 3 cm (10 inch x 1¼ inch) strips. Unroll the pappardelle and hang over a bar or rod to dry, or spread out flat, dusted with plenty of flour, over a large tray to dry.

BRAISED OCTOPUS

1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) baby octopus, cleaned

100 ml (3½ fl oz) extra virgin olive oil

½ carrot, diced

½ brown onion, diced

½ leek, white part only, diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

½ dried long red chilli, seeds removed & finely chopped

4 cherry tomatoes, halved

20 Ligurian olives, pitted

1 litre (35 fl oz/4 cups) red wine

1 fresh bay leaf

finely grated zest of ½ orange

5 sprigs thyme, leaves picked

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cut the octopus into bite-sized pieces. Heat half of the olive oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the octopus and cook for 1 hour or until tender. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Return the pan to medium heat, add the remaining oil, the carrot, onion, leek, garlic and chilli and cook for 10 minutes or until softened.

Add the tomato, olives, wine, bay leaf and octopus and simmer for 20 minutes or until the octopus is just starting to become tender.

Add the orange zest and thyme. Check the octopus again to make sure it’s tender enough to just hold its shape and reduce the sauce by one-third. Check the seasoning.

TO SERVE

gremolata or chiffonade parsley, to serve

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the saffron pappardelle and cook until al dente. Drain and add the pasta to the braised octopus. Cook for about 1 minute or until the starch from the pasta has thickened the sauce — it should be wet but not soup-like. Divide among bowls and serve scattered with gremolata or parsley.