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Octopus ragù with soft polenta

Preparation time
overnight

Cooking time
over 2 hours

Serves
Serves 4

By Matt Tebbutt
From Saturday Kitchen

Ingredients

For the octopus ragù

  • 1 whole octopus, cleaned and prepared (see tip)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 50g/1¾oz pancetta, diced
  • ½ onion, diced
  • ½ fennel bulb, trimmed, cored and diced
  • 1 celery stick, chopped
  • 1 tbsp fennel seeds
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 thyme sprigs, chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 200ml/7fl oz red wine
  • 300ml/10fl oz fish stock
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • salt

For the soft polenta

  • 150g/5½oz polenta
  • 50g/1¾oz unsalted butter
  • 50g/1¾oz grated Parmesan, plus extra to serve
  • salt

To serve

  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 tbsp mint, chopped

Method

  1. To make the ragù, carefully dip the octopus into a saucepan of boiling salted water three times to tenderise. Drain and set aside. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and sweat the pancetta, onion, fennel and celery, for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the fennel seeds, bay, thyme and garlic and cook. Pour in the wine and stock and cook until reduced by half. Add the tomatoes and cook until thickened. Add the octopus, cover and simmer very gently for 1–1½ hours until softened. Remove the octopus and slice into pieces. Place the saucepan back over the heat and cook to reduce the sauce as preferred.

  2. To make the polenta, place 1 litre/1¾ pint water in a saucepan with plenty of salt and bring to the boil. Slowly add the polenta, whisking all the time. Simmer for 10 minutes before stirring in the butter and Parmesan.

  3. Spoon the polenta onto a serving plate and sprinkle over some more Parmesan. Add the octopus and ragù and garnish with the parsley and mint. Serve immediately.

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