Octopus Salad with Citrus Fruit & Fennel

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Octopus
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 orange
• 1 grapefruit
• 4 tablespoons black olives pitted
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• Wild fennel fronds to taste

Preparation

Peel the carrot and onion, wash the celery, and roughly chop the onion. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the octopus. Dip the octopus three times before submerging it completely. This makes for more tender meat.
Cook for an hour or until it can be cut with a knife. As soon as it’s done, remove the pot from the heat. Cover and let it rest for an hour.

While the octopus is resting, prepare the other ingredients for the salad. Wash and trim the fennel. Slice it very thinly and place it in a bowl of cold water so that it doesn’t discolour.
Peel the orange and grapefruit, remove the peel and the thin white rind. Cut individual slices of orange, using a using a knife to separate each slice from white skin that connects one to the next. . Repeat with the grapefruit.

Squeeze the juice from the remaining citrus and place it in a bowl. Adjust salt and pepper.
Add 6 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and whisk together to make the salad dressing.

Once the octopus has cooled, drain and cut into pieces. Then prepare a salad, placing the drained fennel in the center of a plate, then then place octopus surrounding it with citrus segments, black olives.

Drizzle everything with salad dressing. Add a grinding of black pepper, if you want, and a bunch of fennel fronds to garnish.

To give this fabulous dish a bit more colour, simply slice tentacles lengthwise and grill a couple of minutes, giving them some added colour.