Octopus Carpaccio
Instructions
To prepare the octopus carpaccio proceed in this way: take the octopus (1), cut the sac lengthwise with a sharp knife (2-3)
and remove the eyes and the beak (4-5); pull away the entrails from the sac and, if you're dealing with a big size octopus, tenderize the meat by pounding it lightly with a meat hammer (6). Wash the octopus very well under running water, being careful to remove any sand or impurities from the tentacles.
Fill a large pot with water up to full, add the peeled carrot, the onion peeled and cut in half, the stalks of celery, the bay leaves, the juniper berries, the peppercorns and the salt (7). Bring everything to a boil, then dip the tips of the octopus tentacles for 4-5 times into the boiling liquid, so that they curl up (8-9) (they'll look nicer):
then submerge the whole octopus into the boiling liquid (10) and let it simmer for about 70 minutes. The octopus should be cooked, but still firm, so check the cooking by pricking with a fork. Once the octopus is ready, remove it from the cooking water, drain and cut it into 4-5 pieces (12-13).
Then prepare the plastic bottle (14) in order to give a cylindrical shape to the octopus meat: cut off the tapered end of the bottle and insert the octopus harmoniously (15), because it will make a nice cross-section when cut.
Poke holes into the bottom of the bottle with the ends of a scissor (16), in order to drain the excess liquid while pressing the octopus. With the help of a clean glass bottle (or anything smaller than the plastic bottle, such as a pestle or a meat hammer) press the octopus meat by pushing it down (17); as you can see, a lot of liquid will drain from the holes on the bottom of the bottle. With a scissor cut the plastic vertically to the height of the octopus to form tabs (18), and fold them to the centre (19) to close the bottle, then wrap everything in cling film very well (20) and place a weight on top.
Pressed in this way, place the octopus in the coldest part of the fridge for at least 24 hours, after that, at the moment of serving, cut the plastic bottle (22), take the cylindrical shape octopus out of the bottle and cut it finely with a knife or, even better, with a food slicer (23-24), like cutting salami.
Then prepare the oil and lemon emulsion to flavour the octopus (25). Arrange the slices of octopus on a serving dish, sprinkle the chopped parsley all over (26) and drizzle the emulsion of oil, lemon juice, pepper and salt (27). Decorate the octopus carpaccio with slices of lemon and bunches of parsley.
