Octopus is finding spot on local menus
FOOD DETECTIVE
The spring menu at River North's Coco Pazzo features Carpaccio di Polpo, thinly sliced octopus that serves as a bed for French beans, new potatoes, Ligurian olives and oregano.
The delicate pieces of seafood, which look something like sliced almonds, are meaty and flavorful, owed to poaching the octopus in red wine, red wine vinegar and aromatic herbs, Coco Pazzo's Executive Chef Chris Macchia explains.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
While it's still warm, the seafood is wrapped tight in plastic wrap and frozen, making it easier to slice thinly and serve, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.
"They're really shocked when it comes out -- they think it's going to be raw because they see carpaccio on the menu," but in this instance the reference is to the thin slices of seafood.
Long a favorite in the Japanese and Mediterranean diet, octopus -- which is related to, but not the squid that gives us calamari -- is now turning up more and more on menus all over the country, from fine Italian restaurants like Coco Pazzo to top-shelf seafood retailers in the city. Macchia says for his diners, this antipasti offering is a healthy high-protein, low-carbohydrate, low-fat option. And at $9, it's relatively affordable.
"People seem to really like it, people eat it as their entree -- it's a pretty big portion and it's a lighter thing and people are trying to eat healthy," he said, noting that the octopus will be on the menu through summer.
Sometimes known as devilfish, the octopus lives on a diet of clams and scallops, giving it a rich flavor, according to the Food Lover's Companion.
Prepared properly, Bill Dugan says, the bite is "toothsome -- a dense, but tender texture."
Dugan's The Fish Guy Market, 4423 N. Elston Ave., offers smaller octopus from Tunisia -- something he says is the best. (The importer actually tenderizes it in an old washing machine with salt.) As with most places, it's brought in frozen, but he has suppliers bring it in fresh from places like Senegal, Portugal and Greece.
For the most part, Dugan offers the octopus in a prepared form, such as a salad, and, from time to time, puts it on the menu at the market's occasional restaurant, Wellfleet.
"If we just try to sell it on its own, it never sells. I'm not sure if people are put off by the feeling of having to clean it or what," Dugan says.
That's why he also offers octopus in ready-to-prepare condition. That means it's already cleaned and then placed in a brine of vinegar, salt and water for a few days. When you get home, Dugan suggests, marinate it in olive oil, some lemon juice, salt and pepper, and then throw it on the grill.
Most frozen octopus sells for $5 to $7 a pound. Cleaned and tenderized, The Fish Guy's octopus retails for $7 to $10 a pound.
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