Name: Paté di Polpo (Octopus Sauce)
Yield: Makes 4 servings for pasta or 6 to 8 for crostini
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 pound/450 g octopus, cleaned, gutted, and well washed (this can be done at the market)*; 6 ounces/85 ml white wine vinegar; 2 tablespoons/30 ml Ligurian extravirgin olive oil; 3 cloves garlic, green heart removed (2 cloves minced; 1 cut in half); 1 tablespoon/7 g capers packed in vinegar (preferably balsamic); 3 tablespoons/22 g minced fresh Italian (flat) parsley; Sea salt; Freshly ground black pepper to taste; ¾ pound/12 ounces/350 g pasta shells (optional)

Preparation info

Makes
4
servings for pasta

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Recipes from Paradise

By Fred Plotkin

Published 1997

About

I tasted this sauce in Tellaro, the coastal town in the province of La Spezia where D. H. Lawrence lived and wrote his story of the octopus who yanked the pullcord that sounded the church bells of the town parish. With its use of a blender, this sauce may seem a bit nouvelle, but in fact it is an older dish whose sauce used to be pounded in a mortar. While I still favor the mortar and pestle for most sauces (certainly those based on herbs and nuts), the blender or food processor is acceptab