The Luciana octopus it is a delicious second course of fish of Neapolitan origin, light and tasty, stuffed with chopped olives, capers and parsley and cooked slowly over low heat together with garlic, chilli pepper and cherry tomatoes. Thanks to Slow cooking the octopus remains tender, juicy and soft. The combination of tomatoes, olives, capers and octopus will immediately transport you to the scents and colors of the seaside villages. There are many versions of octopus alla luciana and every Neapolitan family jealously handed down their recipe. We offer you a simple and infallible recipe, with some useful tips to obtain a meaty but not soft octopus. Luciana octopus is excellent served piping hot, accompanied by toasted breadbut it is also delicious in its cold version, used as a condiment for croutons and bruschetta for a summer appetizer.

Preparation

1

To prepare octopus alla luciana, you need to start by cleaning the octopus. Open the octopus bag by cutting it sideways and empty it from the bowels. With scissors, remove the eyes and the beak.

2

Wash the octopus or octopuses (depending on the weight you will have a different number of pieces) under running water to remove any residual sand, insisting particularly between the suckers on the tentacles.

3

Blend with a mixer half dose of olives, half dose of capers, 1 clove of peeled garlic and half dose of washed and dried parsley.

4

Stuff the octopus head with the blended mix and close the opening with two toothpicks.

5

In a rather large saucepan, pour 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, ½ garlic and 1 whole chilli pepper. Fry for a few minutes, then add the octopus, positioning it with the tentacles facing upwards. Cook over low heat for about 30 minutes.

6

In the meantime, wash the cherry tomatoes, cut them in half and let them rest in a pan with the heat off, so that they lose the excess liquid.

7

When the octopus has reached the cooking time of 30 minutes, add the rest of the olives, the parsley and the capers to the pan. Let it cook for a few minutes, then turn off the flame.

8

In the meantime put another pot on the stove, heat the other two tablespoons of oil with the other half of the garlic and fry it over low heat. When it is golden, add the vegetable water from the cherry tomatoes and let it infuse for two minutes. Add the cherry tomatoes and salt lightly.

9

Let the tomatoes cook for about 20 minutes, squeezing them so that they lose their water.

10

Add the octopus and the sauce to the cherry tomatoes and cook over low heat for another 30-35 minutes.

11

While everything is cooking, toast some slices of bread on a plate until they are well browned.

12

Serve the Luciana-style octopus in a deep dish, well drizzled with its sauce. Accompany it with slices of toasted bread seasoned with a drizzle of olive oil.

Advice and tips

You can buy some octopuses already cleaned in the fish shopthus avoiding the first step of the recipe and going directly to the filling phase.

If you use frozen octopuses you can put them directly in the pot and start cooking without defrosting them beforehand.

If your fresh octopus is gummy at the end of cooking, you can try freezing it for about 24 hours before usebecause freezing helps the octopus meat to be more tender.

If you have purchased already cooked octopuses, you can go directly to the second phase of the recipe: insert the filling into the head of the cooked octopus and add it to the cherry tomatoes while they are cooking.

To obtain a tender and juicy Luciana octopus you have to cook it on a very low flamewithout adding other liquids: the mollusc will release its water and cook perfectly.

The cooking time for octopus can vary according to its quality and state: a defrosted octopus is generally more tender and cooks in less time. Also, if you buy two small octopuses instead of one large octopus, the cooking time will decrease further.

You can thinly slice the octopus Luciana and use it as a sauce for pasta such as calamarata or paccheri.

storage

Luciana-style octopus can be kept in the refrigerator, covered, up to 2 days. You can heat it right away in a pan or serve it cold.

If you have used a fresh and not defrosted octopus you can store everything in the freezer for 2 months to the utmost.

History

Luciana octopus is a dish typical of Campania, in particular of the city of Naples. The dish, in fact, sees its origins in the village of Santa Lucia, a small area adjacent to the Mergellina waterfront, right in the city center. The fishermen of the village, called “luciani”, were particularly gifted in fishing and cooking octopuses with simple but delicious recipes. For this reason the name itself “alla luciana” derives from the village, e it must in fact be written with a lowercase letter because it does not refer to a particular person, but to a territory and a community.