I don't even want to think about an August without peppers!
But this year I want to innovate something.
In Rome there is a tradition of eating chicken with peppers on Ferragosto and Sora Lella used to say that "Chicken with peppers is the most famous chicken in Rome". We need 3 ingredients only: chicken, peppers and tomatoes.
But I wanted to try exchanging the chicken with octopus for a typical Italian dish where the tenderness and saltiness of the octopus mixes with the sweet and vaguely smoky flavor of the pepper.
In the end, there is only the change of an 'l' with a 'p' (in Italian chicken is POLLO and octopus is POLPO)!
The idea was born in transforming a dish created to be an appetizer or a second course into a tasty and colorful first course thanks to the addition of orecchiette, a traditional pasta from Apulia.
Recipe for orecchiette with octopus and peppers
Take the yellow peppers and remove the skin with the potato peeler, then remove the seeds, the white parts and cut them into strips. Cook them in a pan with a clove of garlic and the basil stalks that we will then remove. Mix them with a little oil and cooking water.
The octopus must first be boiled for at least 40 minutes, depending on the weight, and it is essential to encourage curling with the canonical three shots.
Cook the octopus in a pan with garlic, onion and chili pepper and blend with white wine, perhaps the same one that we will drink later (everything you put in comes back).
Once the orecchiette are cooked, combine everything and stir in the pan.
And then enjoy it with a Chardonnay Pietra Bianca from Castel del Monte (the one I put in during cooking!).
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