If you’re looking for a quick and tasty sauce to dress pasta for Christmas Eve, you’re in the right place. For the occasion I’m preparing many recipes from starters to desserts; I don’t know if I’ll manage to publish them all, but I absolutely cannot skip this wonderful octopus ragù. I prepare it right away and freeze it, so I’ll find it ready for the Christmas Eve lunch. Therefore, the recipe I want to share is a sauce for a first course and, as I announced in the title, it is a fish ragù — specifically octopus — suitable for dressing any pasta shape: pappardelle, paccheri, gnocchi, baked pasta, lasagna; there’s really no limit for such a delicious sauce. Also, even though I’m suggesting it for Christmas Eve, I’d say it’s so simple, quick, flavorful, tasty and exquisite, that I’m sure those who try it will make it often, not just for a holiday but at any time of the year.

Why do I recommend this octopus ragù?

Because I was fascinated by it from the very first moments of preparation. I adopted a method that allowed me to speed up the recipe a lot; also, as I repeat, it has an exceptionally delicious flavor — finger-licking good.

How long did it take me to make the octopus ragù?

Very little. To prepare the octopus ragù I took about 15 minutes. It’s so quick you can make it without much planning; you can do it between tasks on the same day you intend to serve it, or prepare it a few days in advance and then freeze it, as I did. That way you only need to defrost it a few hours before to have a sauce ready for a first course that will amaze everyone.

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Medium
Portions: 6
Cooking methods: Stovetop
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Autumn, Winter

151.23 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 151.23 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 6.41 (g) of which sugars 3.32 (g)
Proteins 14.85 (g)
Fat 6.13 (g) of which saturated 1.26 (g)of which unsaturated 0.85 (g)
Fibers 0.75 (g)
Sodium 269.84 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients

Octopus ragù for 6 servings. Regarding celery, carrot and onion, you can use fresh aromatics, washed, dried and blended, or if you usually prepare vegetable bouillon cubes and store them frozen you can use 3 cubes instead of freshly blended aromatics.

Vegetable bouillon with silicone mold to obtain cubes

or there’s also the Homemade bouillon without silicone mold, economical and equally perfect

1 lb 12 oz octopus
7 oz (about 1 cup) pumpkin (raw with skin)
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 oz (about 1 stalk) celery
1 oz (about 1 small carrot) carrot
1 oz (about 1/4 medium onion) onion
black pepper
chili flakes (or ground chili)
Half glass red wine
3 oz (about 1/3 cup) tomato passata
3/4 tsp (about 4 g) salt
garlic powder
1 tbsp vinegar (apple cider or wine vinegar)
1 bunch parsley

Tools

To prepare octopus ragù, like any other ragù, the meat should first be ground. Therefore, it’s useful to have a simple meat grinder on the worktop (always very handy in the kitchen regardless of today’s recipe). If you want to see the one I’ve used for years, here is the address. It’s a tool I highly recommend: small and handy in the kitchen, super functional; it assembles and disassembles in 2 seconds and cleans quickly, plus it has all the accessories to make sausages at home

and also the kubbe — a beloved Eastern recipe, a wheat shell filled with spiced lamb. This is the basic recipe but in Italy you can make variations (for example like arancini). With this tool it will be very easy to try many variants

a wonder Everyone who cooks should have such a versatile meat grinder at home :).

—>>> Take advantage before the offer ends

Steps

Wash the octopus under running water, then remove the beak (here’s a guide: how to clean an octopus), cut it into large pieces, then pass it through the meat grinder.
Put 2 tbsp of oil in the pot and turn on the heat. Add 3–4 homemade vegetable bouillon cubes (or about 1 oz celery, 1 oz carrot, 1 oz onion, all passed through the meat grinder before the octopus, or use a food processor with blades).
Sauté well, then add 1/2 cup (about 120 ml / 4 fl oz) of red wine. Let it evaporate, then add the ground octopus.
Cook 7–8 minutes, until the octopus’s own liquid is absorbed. At this point add 7 oz (about 1 cup) of raw pureed pumpkin.
With each addition, of course, stir the ragù with a silicone spatula.
Add 1/2 cup (about 120 g / 4 oz) of tomato passata and immediately after 1 tbsp of apple cider or wine vinegar (if you have already-cooked tomato sauce, that’s even better).
Finally, season with about 3/4 tsp salt (about 4 g), a pinch of black pepper, a pinch of chili and a pinch of garlic powder.
If you used raw passata, raise the heat and cook 5 minutes or until the color changes and it becomes nicely thick; if instead you used already-cooked sauce you can immediately add the chopped parsley with the appropriate tool parsley chopper and 2 tbsp of oil.
Perfect — the octopus ragù is ready to be used as a sauce for pasta of any shape: pappardelle work great, but so do gnocchi or ravioli. It’s also special for preparing a tasty lasagna for Christmas Eve.

Storage

The octopus ragù can be used immediately, or it can be stored up to 3 days in the refrigerator, or for longer periods it can be safely frozen.

How to use the octopus ragù

To make the octopus ragù even more succulent and creamy, 2 minutes before draining the pasta I recommend adding to the ragù pot 1 small espresso cup of milk per serving (in this case we have 600 g of ragù for 6 servings, so add 6 small espresso cups of milk — about 6 fl oz / 180 ml total). Raise the heat and let it thicken until the bottom of the pot has a nice and abundant creamy consistency. Quickly drain the pasta so it remains moist, then transfer it immediately into the ragù pot. Toss or stir (as you normally do), then plate.

Final tip for the octopus ragù

Already delicious and creamy as is, but if you prefer you can pass only half the octopus through the grinder and leave the other half in small pieces. Cook the same way as if it were all ground ragù. This way the flavor does not change — still very tasty — what changes is only the visual aspect, seeing visible pieces of fish among the pasta. I wouldn’t know which version to choose — both are endlessly good. Try it and let me know with a comment 🙂

Enjoy your meal!

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