Octopus Casserole

March 7, 2012

The Octopus casserole culinary recipe is a recipe which combines many of the healthy Mediterranean ingredients: such as pure olive oil, black olives, tomatoes, and Mediterranean culinary spices such as thyme. Our recipe is a recipe followed in variations by many nations in the Mediterranean Sea such as Greeks, Cypriots and Israelis.

Seafood is part of the Mediterranean diet since its birth. The reason for this is this is not only because the sea was a source of the Mediterranean food but because the Mediterranean people have recognized early enough the healthy properties of seafood. Fish and seafood should be taken twice or more a week and they are the source of many vitamins, proteins and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

The Mediterranean people have developed, over the centuries, many culinary recipes involving fish and seafood combines with culinary herbs and spices and the Mediterranean cuisine followed by many restaurants throughout the world has nothing to envy from any other culinary cuisine.

The recipe provided serves 6 people and it can be easily combined with rice.

Ingredients:

  • 3 lbs of octopus,
  • 3 tbsp of pure virgin Mediterranean olive oil, ( 1 tbsp for 1lb of octopus)
  • Crushes garlic, 1-2 cloves ,
  • 20 small/baby onions (about 1lb)
  • 1 tsp of thyme – prefer the fresh thyme Vs the dried one
  • 1 tsp of oregano, prefer the fresh one and finely chop it
  • 2 tsp  of ginger, fresh and grated
  • 1 tsp of grated Seville orange or a substitute flavor of your liking
  • 2 cans of tomatoes – you may choose the peeled ones if you so desire
  • 1 tsp of brown sugar
  • 1 cup of seeded Mediterranean black olives

Preparation:

The preparation time for this recipe is about 20 minutes. Cooking takes about one hour 30 minutes if you use baby octopus and about 1 hour and 45 minutes if a large octopus is used.

1. Depending of the Octopus that you bought you may discard the beaks from the octopus. If baby octopus has been chosen then cut it in two pieces, if however you bought the large one cut in small pieces.
2. Heat the olive oil in large saucepan;  Put in and cook the onions, herbs, garlic, ginger and Seville orange, stirring for about 2 minutes.  Add the seafood, crush and add the tomatoes and finally add the brown sugar. Cover the saucepan and Simmer for about 45 minutes.
3. Remove the cover and simmer for an additional 45 minutes or until the sauce has thickened slightly. The secret with Octopus is to let it cook slowly.
4.  Stir in the olives and let it stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

Each serving has 0.17 oz of fat and 200Kcal of energy.

It should be noted that should you use Seville orange in the recipe, your food will have a nice and pleasant smell but you should not use too much of this orange since it has a bitterly taste.

You serve the octopus on top of rice to make a perfect lunch or dinner meal. This meal combines well with a nice red dry wine.


Andrea Aurelio
About the author

Andrea Aurelio adopted the Mediterranean diet and the Mediterranean way of living after evaluating a series of diets and realizing that the Mediterranean diet is a proven diet and the best way to adopt a healthy lifestyle. You can connect with him on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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