Isola d’Elba, best know known for being Napoleon’s luxury exile destination, is a wonderful island located in front of Tuscany. It is a truly remarkable place, which has escaped the over-development that has interested many tourist destinations in the past decades. My family’s restaurant, part of a wider business, is there located, close to one of Italy’s best beaches: Fetovaia.

Enough marketing though, I want to talk with you about an essential recipe of the Elban cousine. Polpo all’Elbana is the way to eat octopus, to access its true flavour. It is a simple recipe, yet it does not disappoint. My source is Chef Alvaro Claudi (video), who passionately took upon himself the duty to put in words (he wrote several books) the secular culinary tradition of the island. In the video, he reminds us how octopus is not only a delicacy, it is also very low in calories if cooked simply.

Let us get to the point(s) now and see how to make it:

1. Fill a pot with water and boil it;
2. While you are waiting for the water to boil, clean the octopus. It is easy: just remove what is in the head, carve the eyes out and remove the beak, located at the intersection of all the tentacles;
3. Once the water is boiling, salt it. It should be 3 times the amount you would put for cooking pasta. If you don’t know how much salt to use, put 30 g for every litre of water in the pot. This is supposed to replicate the salinity of sea water. Add also a generous amount of chilli to it;
4. Fork the head of the octopus and bathe it all three times in the boiling water. This has a twofold function: to toughen the skin, so that it will not fall while cooking, and to give the octopus a pleasant shape, as you will be able to see yourself;
5. Leave the octopus in the boiling water for 20 minutes per each kilo of octopus;
6. Turn the heat off and leave the octopus to rest in the water for as much time it took to boiled it, while placing a lid on the pot. E.g. for an octopus weighting 1.5 kg, boil it for 30 minutes and leave it in its water for another 30 minutes. This will soften its texture;
7. Take it out of the water and serve it with no condiments added (only a drop of extra-virgin olive oil is allowed).