Boiled octopus, the recipe to cook it to perfection.
Tender, chewy, delicious.
How many times have you cooked octopus and it turned out mushy, or hard and tough? Today I will show you how to make boiled octopus at home, the recipe to cook it perfectly. Because cooking octopus is very simple, you just need to follow some simple and important rules for a perfect result.
As they say in Naples, the octopus should cook in its own water, so take a nice big and tall pot (the one you use to cook spaghetti is perfect) and fill it almost entirely. After the cooking minutes are up, turn off the heat, cover with a lid, and let the octopus continue cooking. You’ll see that it will become very tender and so tasty, perfect to season and use in many other recipes like grilled, added to sauces or risottos, or cooked in other ways. Below you will find some recipes 🙂
The octopus should be cooked this way even if frozen, just thaw it beforehand.
Also try:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 1 kg octopus
- 1 stalk celery
- 2 sprigs parsley
Tools
- 1 Pot
Steps
For the octopus to be tender after cooking, it needs to be tenderized immediately after being caught, by beating it on a rock or a stone, and then rubbing it on a rough surface. This procedure should be done by the fisherman right after catching it. Doing it at home with a mallet is useless; in this case, another method to tenderize it is freezing. So, if you buy a fresh or just-caught octopus, to be safe and have it tender, I recommend freezing it overnight (octopus is mostly composed of water, which, by freezing, causes the octopus to swell, thus breaking the fibers). Then, before cooking, it must be thawed.
You can recognize fresh octopus from frozen by the skin, which should have iridescent streaks, and the tentacles should be relaxed. Usually, when they are curled, it is thawed octopus. If the flesh is flabby, the octopus is not fresh.
The octopus should not be boiled at high heat, as an aggressive boil would break the skin (the temperature should be around 212°F) and should not be cooked for too long, as prolonged cooking would make the octopus rubbery and fibrous. The right procedure is to cook it in plenty of water and let it finish cooking in its own water, covered by a lid and with the heat off.
Real octopuses have an intense color tending to red and are the tastiest.
The male rock octopus has two symmetrical rows of suction cups and has the most prized flesh.
The female octopus has two asymmetrical rows and smaller tentacles, with less prized flesh.
Knowing all these tricks, let’s proceed to cook our octopus. Let’s see how.
Wash the octopus well under running water, remove the beak at the center of the tentacles by extracting it with your index finger.
Then turn the hood inside out and remove the viscera contained in the sac, also remove the eyes by slightly cutting them. Then rinse it well again under cold running water.
Put a tall and large pot on the heat, full of water. As I mentioned, the octopus must be cooked in abundant water. Add a celery stalk and some parsley sprigs, season with a bit of coarse salt and bring to a boil. As soon as the water reaches a boil, take the octopus by the head and dip it into the boiling water (only the octopus tentacles) and lift it again. Repeat the operation quickly 4 or 5 times until the tentacles are well curled (the thermal shock will make the octopus tender). At this point, leave the octopus in the water with the tentacles facing up, let it come back to a boil, and cook it for about 10 minutes per kg of weight (for smaller octopuses, 8 minutes are enough) over very low heat (the octopus must cook at about 212°F), it should boil gently and be covered with a lid.
After 8 – 10 minutes from the boil resumption, lift the octopus with tongs and pierce it with the tines of a fork at the base of the head (near the tentacle attachment), the flesh should be quite tender. Otherwise, continue cooking the octopus for another 2 minutes.
Once the cooking time is over, turn off the heat and let the octopus cool in its cooking water, covered by the lid. In this way, it will finish cooking and become very tender, and here comes the Neapolitan saying that the octopus must cook in its own water.
Once the octopus is ready, we can season it or prepare any recipes we want. Bon appétit!
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