Saucy linguine with octopus and green olives

This linguine with octopus and green olives in tomato sauce is a fancy yet easy pasta dish that you can make on a weeknight.

The core ingredient – octopus can be cooked, uncooked, ready, etc. For this recipe, I took some supermarket octopus which was cooked and in its juice. If you are using fresh octopus, or frozen – I have also included the details in the end.

The recipe is only divided into two main parts – making the sauce and combining it. The approach for this linguine with octopus is to cut corners and be fast.

Cooking raw octopus

If you happen to get your hands on raw octopus, cooking it is also very simple, but just takes a bit of time. All you have to do is simmer for 40-60 minutes in salty water until you can easily slice through it with a knife. Now remove it from the heat, let it cool in the cooking water. If you want the skin not to get loose, put it in a container, and let it chill in the fridge. I don’t care about this step that much as in the pasta it does not matter.

Using already-cooked octopus

The whole idea of this recipe is to sear the boiled octopus with garlic and anchovies. This will elevate its taste, from somewhat bland, to a whole new level. Important in this step is not burning the garlic so in my view this is the only part that you have to be careful.