Polvo à Lagareiro
Portugal's olive-press-day plate: tender octopus and punched new potatoes roasted hard under a generous flood of garlicky olive oil.
Overview
Polvo à Lagareiro is the dish the olive-press workers (the lagareiros) ate at the press during the harvest, and it is still glorious: tender octopus and small smashed potatoes baked together under a generous slick of olive oil. You simmer a whole octopus for an hour with onion and bay until you can pierce a thick part of the tentacle with a knife and feel no resistance. The potatoes parboil, then get punched gently with a wooden spoon so they crack but stay whole. Octopus and potatoes go into a wide oven dish, doused with olive oil, garlic, paprika and bay, and roast hard for 25 minutes so the edges char. The olive oil at the end is not a garnish but the dish itself, and it wants to be the best you have.
Ingredients
Octopus
- 1 octopus (about 1 ½-2 kg, frozen then thawed, or pre-tenderised from the fishmonger)
- 1 onion (halved)
- 2 bay leaves
- A strip of lemon peel
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Water (enough to cover)
Potatoes
- 800 g small new potatoes (the smaller, the better - about walnut-sized)
- 2 teaspoons salt (for boiling)
To roast
- 200 ml extra-virgin olive oil (generous - this is "lagareiro" - the olive-oil press style)
- 8 garlic cloves (sliced thin)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Garnish
- 3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley (chopped)
- 1 lemon (cut into wedges)
- 2 tablespoons raw olive oil (drizzle)
Method
Stage 1 - Cook the octopus
- Place octopus in a large pot with onion, bay leaves, lemon peel and salt.
- Cover with water (just to submerge).
- Bring to a boil; reduce to a low simmer; partially cover.
- Cook 50-60 minutes until tender - a knife should slip easily through the thickest part of the tentacle.
- Off heat; let cool 15 minutes in the cooking liquid (continues to tenderise).
Stage 2 - Parboil and punch potatoes
- Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil.
- Add the new potatoes whole (skins on); boil 10-12 minutes until just tender.
- Drain.
- With the back of a wooden spoon (or your palm), gently press each potato - they should crack open slightly without breaking apart entirely.
Stage 3 - Cut the octopus
- Lift octopus from the cooking liquid.
- Cut each tentacle off the body where it meets the head.
- Cut the head into 4 pieces; discard the eye-and-beak section.
- Pat dry on kitchen paper.
Stage 4 - Roast
- Heat oven to 220°C (200°C fan).
- Drizzle 100 ml olive oil into a wide oven dish.
- Scatter sliced garlic, bay leaves, paprika (both), salt and pepper.
- Arrange the punched potatoes and octopus tentacles in the dish - overlap loosely.
- Drizzle the remaining 100 ml olive oil over the top - yes, that much.
- Toss to coat.
Stage 5 - Bake
- Roast 25-30 minutes - the potatoes crisp at the edges; the octopus tentacles slightly char and curl; the olive oil bubbles.
Stage 6 - Serve
- Tip onto a wide serving platter.
- Scatter chopped parsley.
- Squeeze a wedge of lemon over.
- Drizzle extra olive oil - the "lagareiro" finish.
Notes
- Frozen octopus, thawed: Freezing breaks down the connective tissue and gives a tender octopus without other tricks. If your octopus is fresh, bash it on a rock or against the sink before cooking (or pre-freeze it for 24 hours).
- Generous olive oil: Lagareiro means "the press worker's style" - generous oil is the point. 200 ml across the dish is not too much. Use a good olive oil; this is its showcase.
- Don't pre-salt heavily: Octopus shrinks in salt brine. Light salting only during the simmer; final salt is applied during roasting.
Storage
- Refrigerate 3 days; reheat covered in a 180°C oven 12 minutes.
- Freezes 2 months.
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