Marinated Baby Octopus

Marinated baby octopus is the perfect appetizer for entertaining at home. Octopus is cooked to perfection, seasoned with oregano, salt, pepper and coated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Making marinated baby octopus is very easy. The whole preparation is simple and literally takes minutes. The cooking, however, takes some time, but if you want to taste the best octopus appetizer, you have to be patient.

You can serve marinated octopus with slices of fresh baguette or as a part of cheese board. If you want something simpler, try adding it to a Mediterranean antipasti platter.

Or just add more appetizers to your menu that will go well with octopus: Like prosciutto fig crostini or Caprese salad bites.

Can you eat the whole baby octopus?

Yes, you can. The head is equally delicious as the tentacles. The only parts you cannot eat are the intestines, beak and the ink.

Some people might not like the skin which has a gelatinous texture, but I don’t find it a problem with marinated baby octopus. You can remove some of it with a knife after cooking, if you like.

How do you tenderize an octopus before eating?

This is a good question and I’ve seen many different answers across the Internet and also from fish sellers.

Apparently, you can tenderize it by bringing, it in salted water for a couple of hours or using a meat tenderizer or literally by beating it. I’ve tried the beating method (well, my fish seller did) but it did not work for me.

Now, when I make marinated baby octopus, all I do is simmer it for a long time until it gets tender. For baby octopus it is about 60-80 minutes. The larger the octopus, the longer the time needed.

How to make marinated baby octopus

Place rosemary sprigs, cloves, bay leaves and whole black peppercorns into a medium saucepan. Add the octopus and cover with water. Then, cover with a lid and simmer on low heat for 75 minutes or until tender.

When ready, drain. Let the octopus cool down before you cut them into bite-size pieces.

Transfer the pieces onto a serving plate and season with salt, pepper, oregano and add a generous amount of olive oil and a good splash of balsamic vinegar.

Mix everything together and taste. If you feel that this marinated octopus needs more seasoning, then add more.

For a full recipe, please check the recipe card.

Expert tips

• You can double or triple this baby octopus recipe. I don’t recommend halving it as octopus shrinks during cooking, so you wouldn’t have much left to feast on.
• I always use extra virgin olive oil for this kind of recipe as it is the best and most tasty oil out there. However, if you don’t have one on hand and you don’t want to buy one, you can use regular olive oil. Please, don’t substitute it with any other oils.
• Marinated baby octopus can be enjoyed right away or you can keep it in the fridge until serving time (I recommend using an air-tight container).

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