Polvo à Lagareiro

Ingredients

• 1 whole octopus, about 1.5 kg, cleaned
• 1 onion, unpeeled
• 2 bay leaves
• 800 g small waxy potatoes
• 200 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 8 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 2 tbsp coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 3 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Before you cook

• Freeze the octopus for at least twenty-four hours and thaw it fully before cooking, which breaks down the fibres and tenderises the flesh.
• Rinse the octopus under cold water and check that the beak and innards have been removed.
• Scrub the potatoes and leave their skins on.
• Crush the garlic cloves lightly with the flat of a knife, keeping the skins on.
• Halve the onion without peeling it.

Steps

1. Bring a large pot of unsalted water to a rolling boil with the onion halves and bay leaves.
2. Hold the octopus by the head and dip it into the boiling water for three seconds, then lift it out.
3. Repeat that dip twice more, so the tentacles curl tightly.
4. Lower the octopus into the water and simmer it, uncovered, for forty-five to sixty minutes.
5. Test it by pushing a knife tip into the thickest part of a tentacle; it should slide in with almost no resistance.
6. Turn off the heat and leave the octopus sitting in its water for fifteen minutes.
7. Put the potatoes in a separate pan of well-salted water and boil them for twenty-five minutes, until tender.
8. Drain the potatoes and let them steam dry for five minutes.
9. Heat the oven to 220C.
10. Lift the octopus out and cut it into whole tentacles, with the head cut into two or three pieces.
11. Lay the octopus in a large roasting dish.
12. Press down on each potato with the heel of your hand until it cracks open but still holds together.
13. Tuck the smashed potatoes around the octopus.
14. Scatter the crushed garlic cloves across the dish.
15. Pour the olive oil over everything, so the pieces sit half submerged.
16. Sprinkle the coarse salt over the potatoes and grind the white pepper over the octopus.
17. Roast for twenty-five to thirty minutes, until the potato edges are crisp and the oil is bubbling hard around them.
18. Spoon the hot oil from the dish back over the octopus twice during roasting.
19. Scatter over the parsley and serve straight from the dish with lemon wedges.