Pulpo à Lagareiro

Name: Pulpo à Lagareiro
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Portuguese (Trás-os-Montes)
Ingredients: 1 (about 1.2 kg) Octopus; 600 g Small waxy potatoes; 8 Garlic cloves; 200 ml Extra virgin olive oil; 1 Bay leaf; 1 Onion, halved; Fresh parsley or coriander; Coarse salt

Pulpo cocido hasta quedar tierno y luego asado con patatas chafadas bajo un chorro generoso de aceite de oliva y ajo. 'Lagareiro' es el que trabaja en el molino de aceite: el nombre avisa de cuánto aceite lleva.

Fuente

Receta de Portuguese home kitchens · 🏺 Tradicional · Everyday cooking of Portuguese households — the plain, produce-led food behind the restaurant classics

Portuguese (Trás-os-Montes) · traditional dish — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article defines polvo à lagareiro as a Portuguese dish of octopus, olive oil, potatoes (batatas a murro / 'punched potatoes'), grelos and garlic; explains that 'lagareiro' refers to someone who works in an olive-oil mill (lagar), the name pointing to the abundant oil poured over the octopus; and places it in Trás-os-Montes, often served on Christmas Eve. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Prof Mele Chef Marco Paulo Oliveira

⏱ 90 min🍽 4 porciones🔥 430 kcal🇵🇹 Portugal

PescetarianoSin lácteosSin glutenSin frutos secos

Pasos

Simmer the octopus with the bay leaf and halved onion in a big pot of unsalted water for 45–60 minutes, until a knife slides easily into the thickest part of a tentacle. Leave it to cool in its water for 15 minutes.
💡 Do not salt the boiling water — salt at this stage can toughen octopus. Season only later, at the roasting stage.
Meanwhile boil the potatoes whole in their skins until tender, drain, and press down on each one with your palm or the base of a glass until the skin splits and it flattens slightly — the 'punch' of batatas a murro.
Cut the cooled octopus into large pieces. Spread the potatoes and octopus in a roasting dish, tuck in the garlic cloves, and pour the olive oil over everything — it should pool in the dish. Season with coarse salt.
Roast in a hot oven (200°C) for 25–30 minutes, until the octopus edges catch colour and the potatoes turn golden and crisp at the split edges. Spoon the hot oil back over everything once or twice.
💡 The garlicky roasting oil is the sauce — do not drain it. Spoon it over the octopus at the table.
Scatter with parsley or coriander and serve hot, straight from the dish, with plenty of bread to mop the oil.

💡 Consejos

Frozen octopus is not a compromise — the freeze-thaw does the tenderising that fishermen once did by beating it on rocks. If yours is fresh and comes out chewy, next time freeze it first.
The same 'à lagareiro' treatment — boiled, then roasted under a lot of garlicky olive oil with punched potatoes — is just as classic with salt cod (bacalhau à lagareiro). Swap the octopus for soaked cod loins and the method barely changes.