Braised Octopus and Leeks

The recipe below, as well as other fine recipes, may be found in the magazine La Cucina Italiana, October 1999, Page 67: Indirizzo Internet de "La Cucina Italiana on Line" e www.cucinait.com.

Seppie di pulire	1.5 kg (1500 g)
Porri	300 g.
Cerfoglio	Q.B.
Burro	Q.b.
Panna liquida	Q.B.
Vino bianco secco	Q.B.
Sale, pepe in grani	Q.B.

Pulite le seppie: evisceratele, privatele del becco, degli occhi, dell' ossicino cartilagineo: spellatele, lavatele, asciugatele e tagliatele a listelerelle. Spuntate i porri, lavateli, riduceteli a filetti, raccoglieteli in una casseruola e appassiteli in una grossa noce di burro, quindi unitevi le listerelle di seppie, mezzo bicchiere di vino bianco, sale, pepe macinato incoperchiate e lasciate stufare a fuoco moderato per circa 20 minuti: infine legate l'intingolo con g. 100 di panna e completatelo con un abbondante trito di cerfoglio fresco.

Cleaned Octopus - baby	3 1/3 lbs.
Leeks	2/3 Lb.
Chervil	Q.B.
Butter	Q.B.
Heavy Cream	Q.B.
White Wine	1 Cup
Salt & Pepper	Q.B.

Please note that in this translation we have made a few changes. Not having Chervil at this time of the year, we used a 50/50 mixture of Cilantro and Parsley as the condiment. We also chose to use a simple béchamel sauce rather than heavy cream. The Béchamel sauce recipe may be accessed by clicking here. While the recipe called simply for octopus, we used baby octopus.

Clean the octopus, removing the innards and any small cartilaginous bones found. cut off the heads, and remove the small beaks and eyes. Discard these. Also remove the skin from the octopus, dry them and cut them into strips. [For baby octopi, cutting them after the tentacles, eyes and beaks have been removed is unnecessary]

Clean the leeks, and cut them into long strips. Place them in a pan large enough to hold them and the octopus. Add a large chunk of butter, the octopus, the white wine, salt , and ground pepper. cover and leave to braise for 20-30 minutes on a moderate burner.

At the end of this time, add about 100 grams (1/4 lb) of cream or béchamel sauce, along with an abundant amount of chervil, or the parsley and cilantro mixture mentioned in the note above.