slow cooker octopus with red wine sauce over linguine
Recipes
Dinner
Slow Cooker Octopus with Red Wine Sauce Over Linguine
Don't be afraid to put octopus in the slow cooker! Expand your palate and enjoy this tender, light meat that tastes similar to chicken. This red wine sauce is very rich, briny and deeply flavored, so much so that you only need to serve half of it with the octopus.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup chopped carrots (from 2 carrots)
- 1 cup chopped celery (from 3 celery stalks)
- ½ cup chopped shallots (from 3 to 4 shallots)
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic (from 3 garlic cloves)
- 1 (26.46 ounce) package chopped tomatoes (such as pomì)
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 pounds cleaned octopus (tubes and tentacles), rinsed
- 12 ounces uncooked whole-grain linguine
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Directions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the chopped carrots, celery, and shallots, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, red wine, tomato paste, salt, thyme, and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Transfer to a 6-quart slow cooker. Nestle the octopus into the sauce. Cover and cook on LOW until the octopus is tender, 5 hours to 5 hours and 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the linguine according to the package directions, omitting the salt and fat, and transfer to a serving platter or bowl, and keep warm.
- Remove the octopus, reserving the sauce in the slow cooker. Cut the octopus into 1-inch pieces, and add to the pasta; cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. Pour the reserved sauce through a wire-mesh strainer into a medium saucepan to equal 5 cups, discarding the solids. Bring to a boil over high, and boil until reduced to 4 cups, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the pepper. Spoon about 2 cups of the sauce over the octopus and pasta; sprinkle with the parsley.
