This $32 pasta dish is an Italian styled homage to the American tradition of surf and turf comprising of handmade durum fusilli in a luscious tomato based sauce with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow cubes.
This recipe has been adapted from the serious eats and altacucina articles of the same dish.
Into a cast iron pot melt a knob of butter with some olive oil and on medium heat, saute until translucent:
- 1 sliced large onion;
- 1 shredded carrot;
- 1 diced stalk of celery;
- 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves;
- a few chopped stalks of basil;
- a couple of bay leaves;
- a few sprigs of thyme: and
- 1 sprig of rosemary.
Add in the cleaned baby octopus (I used about 300g, halved). Continue to saute for a few minutes before adding in a glass of red wine and a tin of diced tomatoes. Turn the heat down and simmer for an hour. Add salt and pepper as needed.
In the meantime, remove the bone marrow from their bones. I bought 2kg of beef bones from the butcher which gave just enough marrow for this dish. Season with salt and pepper and flash fry the marrow in a very hot pan and set aside. The marrow will be added into the sauce later.
The fusilli can also be made while the sauce is cooking. The dough consists of just water and course semolina. Instructions can be found on my pasta making page. Once the dough is formed, press through the pasta machine as usual but only flattening it to the number 2 setting. Hand cut into strips and twirl, then add flour and set aside.
Prepare the Mollica, which is made of breadcrumbs, chopped chilli, garlic and parsley toasted in some olive oil until crunchy.
Add the mollica as well as sliced or whole basil leaves before serving.