Octopus Carpaccio Luciana Style

La storia di questo piatto

Born from the salt-worn hands of Santa Lucia's fishermen, this dish carries the entire soul of Naples in its translucent folds — a city that has always known how to turn the sea's rawness into something luminous and proud.

Ingredienti

• 1200 g Fresh octopus
• 2 l Cold water
• 30 g Sea salt
• 2 pieces Fresh lemon
• 80 ml Extra virgin olive oil
• 20 g Fresh parsley
• 2 cloves Garlic cloves
• q.b. to taste Freshly ground black pepper

Preparazione

1. Take the octopus and rinse it thoroughly under cold running water, rubbing it well with your hands to wash away every grain of sand hidden between the suckers. With a sharp small knife, remove the eyes and, turning the head inside out, eliminate the hard beak at the center of the tentacles. Once you've done this, the octopus is clean and ready, smelling purely of the sea.
2. Put cold water with salt on the heat and bring it to a boil. Plunge the whole octopus in, wait for it to return to a boil, then cover and lower the flame to medium-low, letting it cook gently for 45 to 50 minutes. Grandmother's secret is not to pierce the pot too often to check: when a wooden skewer slides into the meatiest part without any resistance, as if going through butter, the octopus is done.
3. Pull the octopus out of the water and let it cool down completely, so it firms up and keeps all its juices locked inside. Once it's cool to the touch, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or place it between two plates with a weight on top, pressing it into a compact sausage-like shape: this way every slice will come out whole and perfect, without falling apart.
4. With a very sharp knife and the blade lightly moistened, slice the pressed octopus into the thinnest possible slices, almost transparent, as if they were flower petals. Arrange them in a pinwheel or circular pattern on a well-chilled plate, overlapping them just slightly: the eye deserves its due, and a carpaccio that looks beautiful is already half-tasted with the gaze alone.
5. Drizzle generously with good extra virgin olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice, then dust with parsley chopped at the last moment and a grinding of fresh black pepper. Taste a small slice before bringing it to the table, to make sure the salt and lemon have found harmony together: it should be served right away, ice cold, at that moment when the perfume of lemon meets the scent of the sea.