Octopus, uncorked

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Ever since I first had the octopus at Osteria Mozza, I’ve been a little obsessed. With the octopus, that is. I love Mirko Paderno’s octopus carpaccio at All’ Angelo, the spicy octopus cooked at-table at My Secret Recipe in Koreatown, the charred octopus at Joe’s in Venice -- which Joe Miller has said he’ll definitely have on the menu at his new Bar Pintxo. (No, I haven’t had the Craft octopus yet, though maybe with the writers strike, now would be a good time to brave the CAA neighborhood.)

Some weeks ago, when I told the boyfriend (ex-chef, seafood importer) that I wanted to grill octopus at home, he gave me a 4 1/2-pound whole Spanish cephalopod (ah, love), which has been taking up valuable space in my freezer ever since. Last night, however, I got home to find that the boyfriend had thawed it out, spent an hour braising it in olive oil spiked with oregano, cumin and cayenne and was just about to throw it on the hot grill outside.

I didn’t have any celery or fingerling potatoes (Mozza) or an enormous bowl of Asian vegetables (My Secret Recipe), but I did have a pot of Umbrian lentils that I’d cooked the day before with carrots, onions, Aleppo pepper and water spiked with veal demi-glace. A little fresh flat-leaf parsley, and it paired perfectly with the grilled tentacles. The octopus was terrific and surprisingly tender. Why surprising? Because the boyfriend had not put wine corks in the braising pot.

Many chefs, particularly Italian chefs, claim that wine corks somehow tenderize the often rubbery tentacles, and so they routinely add corks to the braising liquid. Angelini Osteria‘s Gino Angelini does: He was taught the trick at cooking school in Italy. And they do at Mozza, where the octopus recipe comes from Mario Batali’s mother. When I e-mailed food science writer Harold McGee about it, he wrote that he’d actually tested the theory in blind-tasting demos and that he can’t tell any difference. As for Providence‘s Michael Cimarusti, he says he knows it’s an old wives’ tale, but he throws a few corks in anyway, just in case. The boyfriend shrugged when I asked if he’d added them, and said he couldn’t find any. It didn’t seem to matter much, and since we were watching ‘Monday Night Football’ now that baseball season’s over, I couldn’t make any Sammy Sosa corked-bat jokes anyway.

My Secret Recipe, 4177 W. 3rd St., Koreatown, (213) 380-8382. For other restaurant addresses, click the links above.

-- Amy Scattergood

photos by Amy Scattergood