While most of the food we serve at Cicchetti requires a wood-fired oven or a crack team of skilled cooks, we wanted to give you a chance to make some of our dishes at home. Today, I’ll walk you through our Octopus and Chickpea salad with Salsa Verde.
To start, you want to get a one or two pound octopus. They’re a bit tricky to find, but a quality seafood purveyor should have them. From there, you want to combine about two quarts of water with a cup of red wine and a couple of red wine corks. The cork helps soften up the texture of the octopus, so don’t skip it! Bring the mixture to a boil, then add in the octopus and turn the temperature down to a simmer.
The octopus will take about an hour to cook, so you can prepare the rest of the dish.
For the chickpeas, you’ll want to use dried ones (they have significantly better flavor and texture than the canned ones). They do require a day to rehydrate, but it’s worth it. Once they’ve been brought back to life, simmer them in a little bit of the water until they’re tender (should take about 20 minutes or so).
The salsa verde is traditionally composed of parsley, basil, and oregano, but you can feel free to substitute other fresh herbs if you prefer. Combine that with shallots, capers, and a few anchovies in a food processor, then slowly add in extra virgin olive oil as you puree the ingredients.
Once the octopus is finished cooking, let it cool and then submerge it in water and peel off the purple film that will have formed on the body. Cut off and discard the head, then chop the legs and body into small pieces (about half an inch square). Combine the octopus with the chickpeas, and dress with the salsa verde, and there you go. Garnish with a few picked herbs, or some pickled onions, and serve.
Octopus and Chickpea Salad
