Purpu muratu, stewed octopus, called also with other names, is a dish cooked in all countries facing the Mediterranean Sea and where polpo is fished. In Palermo, my family used a clay pot exclusively reserved to cook this dish; it was a large pot with a lid which made the pot airtight, so as to not allow the vapors to escape and let the polpo cook in his liquid. This pot was washed and stored with great diligence and used exclusively to cook stewed octopus or fish, or to make Zuppa di Pesce, fish soup.

Cook one pound of octopus per person as a meal or half a pound as an appetizer; to prepare a condiment for one pound of pasta, follow the enclosed recipe, however, reduce the polpo to 2 pounds and dice it into 1 inch cubes. The cooking time is very important to guaranty a soft and tender octopus: my aunt, zia Bettina, had strict rules; cook the polpo for 1 hour and 15 minutes, let it rest covered in the pot for 15 minutes, then check for salt and serve. Because when cooking the tentacles, part of their brownish pigment will disperse into the tomato sauce, the gravy of the stewed octopus comes out in a cloudy, almost black shade; however, the bread dunked in this murky brownish sauce is delicious, the polpo will melt in your mouth and will fill it with countless flavors. In the Focacceria Palermitana Joe’s of Avenue U in Brooklyn, NY , we did not prepare or offer to our customers this dish, but at home, we made the stewed octopus with small size polpo and served it with boiled potatoes; more often we used the sauce as a condiment for pasta.