Octopus Salad Recipe Polpo

 

INSALATA di POLPO

 

"OCTOPUS SALAD"

 

 

 

 

   Octopus Salad

 

Along with Tuna, Swordfish, Sardines, and Mussels, Octopus is one of Sicily’s most favorite of seafood items. If you like, use the preparation here for cooking the octopus, and you can make the Octopus Salad, or at the point where the Octopus is finished cooking you can serve it hot as Bolito di Polpo, along with boiled potatoes or some sautéed Broccoli Rabe or other vegetable as you like it. We love our Polpo, and if you make it either of these two ways, boiled and served hot or as the Octopus Salad, you’re sure to love it too! Buon Appetito!

 

 

 

 

RECIPE :

 

1 – Frozen Octopus about 2 lbs. washed

1 Bay Leaf

2  or 3 Corks

¼ cup Olive Oil

2 large Potatoes, boiled until tender

2 stalks Celery, washed and cut to ½” pieces

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar

½ teaspoon each of Sea Salt & Black Pepper

¼ teaspoon Red Pepper flakes (optional)

¼ cup Fresh Parsley, washed, dried, and chopped

 

 

 

Place the Octopus in a large pot with Bay Leaf and Corks if you have the. Cover the octopus with water and bring to the boil, then immediately lower heat so the octopus is cooking at a gentle simmer. Let cook for 1 hour, uncovered. Turn lid off and let the octopus sit in the hot water. After 30 minutes, remove octopus from the water and drain in a colander. Shake off excess water and let the octopus rest in the colander for 30 minutes.

 

Cut the potatoes into 1” cubes. When the octopus is cooking, cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until just slightly tender, about 7 minutes.

 

Drain the potatoes and let cool.

 

Cut the Octopus into 1 /2 inch pieces and put in a large glass or ceramic bowl with the potatoes. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix.

 

Your Insalata di Polpo is ready to serve. Serve as an antipasto, as part of a mixed antipasto or as a main course if you like.

 

 

 

This recipe has been Excerpted from GRANDMA BELLINO'S COOKBOOK

 

Courtesy of author Daniel Bellino "Z"

 

 

 

 

 

 

RECIPES From My SICILIAN NONNA

 

DANIEL BELLINO "Z"

 

MANGIA BENE !

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HOW to COOK OCTOPUS ?

 

RECIPE & INSTRUCTIONS

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Vastedda Ferdinandos Focacceria Brooklyn Sicilian

FERDINANDO'S

FOCACCERIA

BROOKLYN

Paul’s Focacceria opened in 1904, the same year the ice cream cone was invented and Cy Young threw the first perfect game. Paul’s was located on a residential street just a few blocks away from the Brooklyn piers, and it served traditional Sicilian sandwiches to the local Italian community and Italian longshoremen clamoring for a taste of home. It was only open for lunch. Today, the longshoremen and working pier may be gone, but Paul’s remains — it’s now called Ferdinando’s Focacceria (151 Union Street, Brooklyn; 718-855-1545).

Ferdinando’s has witnessed a lot of history, including the building of the BQE in its backyard in the 1950s. The restaurant occupies the first floor of a three-story brownstone and retains the original wooden French doors, though the interior doesn’t necessarily look like it’s been around for 110 years. It doesn’t feel dated or kitschy, but it does sport its original tile floors (those seen in every Italian Mob movie) and original tin ceiling, plus small tables with marble tops — this is old world mixed with 1950s Brooklyn Italian.

For the past 40 years, the place has been run by Frank Buffa, a man with short-cropped gray hair and one of the greatest accents of all time. Born in Sicily, Buffa was first a police officer whose small town lacked enough crime for him to ever have to wear his uniform. During the day, Frank would go to the gym and study judo; at night he took classes in physical therapy. In 1971, at age 21, Buffa traveled to Brooklyn, staying with a distant cousin who offered to put him up for one week. Shortly after, he was attending a Giani Morandi concert at Madison Square Garden and met his now wife of 40-plus years. Her father, Ferdinando, was the third owner of the then 60-year-old establishment. After Ferdinando passed away suddenly in 1975, Frank took over full-time. Since then, he’s seen the neighborhood change as the last of the longshoremen shipped off and a once fully Italian neighborhood gave way to well-maintained beards and tortoiseshell glasses. “It’s a-like the Soho Village over here,” Buffa says.

Since the beginning, Ferdinando’s menu has been heavy on Sicilian classics, especially those once served in open-air markets. The vastedda sandwich — composed of calf’s spleen topped with ricotta and grated caciocavallo cheese — is a particularly interesting beast. Served on a freshly baked round roll, the spleen has a gamy taste. “An acquired taste, you know what I mean,” says Buffa.

Un VASTEDDA

FERDINANDO'S

The real reason many people trek to Ferdinando’s is for the famed panelle sandwich. Served on the same fresh-baked roll, fried chickpeas take center stage, underneath a pile of ricotta and caciocavallo. Shaped into small triangle patties, the chickpea sandwich is akin to sweet fried potatoes that have been smashed. Sweet and softly fried, it’s an old-school sandwich that has never needed changing.

And since taking over Ferdinando’s, Buffa has changed little, besides adding dinner service and more classic Sicilian dishes to expand on the once sandwich-heavy menu. Appetizers include freshly made burrata and calamari tossed with lemon, while entrees highlight fresh-made pasta — see the Penne Alla Puttanesca, with anchovies, onion, and capers. Pungent and oily, the dish is as Sicilian as they come. The desserts are standard, and the list is normally two dishes. The house-made cannoli is good, but a short espresso is better.

These days, Buffa is still putting in fifteen-hour days, six days a week. “The secret to a marriage is you don’t be a-home too much,” he says, half-joking. Buffa’s sons are both in their twenties, and are the heirs to the business. They work alongside their father while not in school. And don’t fret, Ferdinando’s won’t be forced out by a rent hike anytime soon — Buffa bought the building many years ago.

Cooking Sicilian

Recipes

Sicilian Rice Balls Recipe Arancini Sicily

ANTONIA

And Her SICILIAN ARANCINI

LEARN HOW to MAKE SICILIAN RICE BALL

With ANTONIA

In SICILY

ANTONIA Making ARANCINI SICILIANA

RECIPE

ARANCINI

RECIPES

CAPONATA

SICILIAN PASTA

CUCUZZA

And More ..

Daniel & JOSEPHIA BELLINO

LERCARA FRIDDI

SICILY

Homemade Sicilian Rigatoni "LOLLI"

SANTINA

"BELLA RAGAZZA"

MAKING HOMEMADE SICILIAN MACCHERONI

"LOLLI"

SICILIAN RIGATONI

and RAGU

SANTINA

with her Homemade "LOLLI"

SICILIAN MACCHERONI

and SUGO

COOKING SICILIAN

RECIPES

NONNA GIUSEPPINA SALEMI BELLINO

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Busiata Pesto Trapanese Sicilian Pasta

BUSIATA

con PESTO TRAPANESE

Learn How to Make

BUSIATA con PESTO TRAPANESE

TRAPANI

SICILY

COOKING SICILIAN

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Sicilian Fava Bean n Ricotta Pasta

 

SICILIAN NONNA

 

MAKING MACCHERONI con FAVA e RICOTTA

 

 

 

 

MACCHERONI FAVA e RICOTTA

 

PASTA GRANNIES

RECIPES

FROM MY SICILIAN NONNA

 

GRANDMA BELLINO

How to Make SICILIAN TOMATO PASTE PASSATA SAUCE

ANNA TASCA LANZA

MAKING "STRATTU"

SICILIAN TOMATO PASTE

PASSATA di POMODORO

TOMATO SAUCE

In SICILY

SICILIAN RECIPES

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Learn How to Make

SICILIAN TOMATO SAUCE

For PASTA

PASQUALE

Making Italian Tomato Sauce

In NEW JERSEY

"JERSEY TOMATOES Are The BEST" !!!!

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Vastedda Fritta Gratteri Sicily

SAGRA di VASTEDDA

GRATTERI

SICILIA

VASTEDDA FRITTA

RECIPE

GRATTERI , SICILY

La VASTEDD FRITTA di GRATTERI

It is the recipe that made the small town of Gratteri known throughout Sicily. The vastedda fritta is a delicious pancake, sweet or salty, whose origins are lost in the mists of time. What is certain is that to have given birth is this center in the province of Palermo, where every housewife jealously guards the recipe handed down from their ancestors. Flour, yeast and extra virgin olive oil are the ingredients with which this delicacy is prepared, which is cut into rectangles in which a salted anchovy is placed in the center, desalted, folded in two and then fried. The vastedda fritta can also be served in the sweet variant: in this case, at the end of frying, it is passed into the sugar; and there is another recipe on the island,

RECIPE

2 pounds Flour flour, 

1 and 1/2 packages of Dry Yeast

 2 tablespoons of olive oil

lukewarm water

Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil for Frying 

Dissolve the yeast with a little water, add the flour and 2 tablespoons of oil, knead well. Let the dough rest for half an hour. Once the dough is leavened, form rectangles of dough, lay on one side of the anchovy fillets, close and fry in hot oil. The vastedde fritte, to be more appreciated by children, can also be sweet, not putting the anchovy and passing them, after having fried them, in sugar.

This is the Sweet version of VASTEDDA FRITTI

For the Savory Version, split a Vastedda open at one end and Fill with Ricotta and Caciocavallo Cheese, and Veal Spleen fried in lard if you have it. If you don't have Veal Spleen, it may be omitted.

NONNA BELLINO'S COOKBOOK

SICILIAN RECIPES

la VASTEDDA MARITATA

Translation : This is a Married Vastedda Sandwich, 

meaning that Firedd Spleen is married with Ricotta

and Caiciocavalo Cheeses

On a Sicilian Sesame See Bun

"The Sicilians just Love Sesames on Their Bread"

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