Risotto is a traditional italian dish and has its roots from the Northern parts of Italy where rice is abundant. Risotto can be flavored with different kind of ingredients and, one of this can be octopus.

Here it is my ligurian version of octopus risotto – risotto con polpo.

Ingredients for 4 people:

400 gr of rice, 2 baby octopus, 4 tomatoes (skinned and chopped), half onion (finely chopped), 1 carrot (chopped), 1 celery (chopped), a bunch of parsely (cleaned and chopped), some dried mushrooms ( to reconstitute cover them with warm water and let sit at least 30 minutes. Then drain, rinse, and blot on paper towels), extra virgin olive oil, grated parmigiano cheese, white wine, warm water, salt

Preparation:

Clean the octopus under running water and cut it into pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and add the chopped onion, the celery, the parsely, the carrot, the tomatoes and the dried mushrooms (previously reconstituted). Fry all the ingredients for a couple of minutes and stir them while they are cooking.

Then, add the octopus, some salt and cook for 30 minutes. Keep stirring it while cooking.

At this point add the rice and toast it for a minute or two. Then, add half glass of white wine and let it evaoprate.

Finally, add warm water, stir well and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally and if necessary add some warm water.

When risotto is almost fully cooked add some grated parmigiano cheese. Mix well, plate it and serve it.

Buon appetito!

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