The Hardware Club’s paccheri with octopus alla Luciana
SERVES 8 // PREP TIME 30 MINS // COOK 3 HRS (PLUS COOLING)
“Octopus alla Luciana, an ancient Neapolitan recipe from the port of Santa Lucia, can be found on the table of most families for Sunday lunch,” says Nicola Duci. “It’s normally served as an entrée with mozzarella, but we decided to turn it into a delicious pasta dish.”
50 gm (1/2 cup) coarse
breadcrumbs
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
500 gm paccheri, or other dried tubular pasta 50 gm butter
Chilli flakes or chilli oil, to serve
BRAISED OCTOPUS
1 octopus (about 1kg), head on, or 1kg octopus legs
200 ml dry white wine 20 ml brandy
400 gm canned crushed tomatoes
4-5 ripe Roma tomatoes or other ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp thyme leaves
MOZZARELLA CREAM
60 gm buffalo mozzarella (about 1/2 mozzarella)
180 gm double cream (about 45% milk fat), at room temperature
Few drops of chardonnay vinegar
1 For braised octopus, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add a generous handful of salt. Once it starts boiling, carefully add octopus and gently boil over medium heat until octopus feels firm to the touch (8-10 minutes). Remove octopus and cool briefly. Reserve 1 litre cooking liquid and return to saucepan. Add wine, brandy, canned and chopped tomatoes, and thyme and slowly bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low, return octopus to pan and cook until a small knife inserted in the thickest part of octopus pierces through with almost no resistance (2½ hours). Remove octopus from liquid and cool briefly (10-15 minutes), then cut into small pieces. Return octopus to pan and keep warm. 2 Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C. Toss breadcrumbs in oil and roast in oven until golden (10-15 minutes). Stir in oregano. 3 Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente (2 minutes less than packet instructions), then drain, add to octopus and stir over medium heat to combine (1-2 minutes).
Add butter and stir for a further 2 minutes.
4 For mozzarella cream, combine ingredients in a bowl and season to taste.
5 To serve, spoon mozzarella cream onto plates, divide pasta onto each plate and top with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, season to taste, and add a pinch of chilli flakes or a drizzle of chilli oil.
Note Chardonnay vinegar is available from The
Essential Ingredient (essentialIngredient.com.au).