Hello friends!

I'm back at it again with another comfort food recipe. Pasta is my go-to meal on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...basically, 'errday. In honor of one of my favorite foods, I'll be sharing my Baby Octopus Spaghetti Recipe.

She's beautiful, isn't she?

If you've never had octopus, do not fret.

It's very easy to make and delicious when made con mucho amor y paciencia (plenty of love & patience). If you've had a flavorful calamari, this will taste about the same.

Fresh octopus can be a bit hard to come by (and pricey, at times) and therefore, you can substitute fresh octopus for canned octopus in this recipe.

What you'll need:

6-10 cloves of garlic; basically a crap-ton of garlic, depending on how garlicky you enjoy your pasta.
1 pound of fresh baby octopus ( cleaned from the market & rinsed at home) ; or two cans of canned octopus.
2 fresh Roma tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
4 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper

How to make baby octopus spaghetti

In a pot of boiling heavily salted water, add the cleaned baby octopus and cook on low-medium heat for 1 hour.
- if you are using canned octopus, skip this step. The octopus is already cooked. Take advantage of the oil in the canned octopus and use it in place of or in addition to the olive oil in this recipe.

After the hour, remove the baby octopus and chop it into bite size pieces.

Set aside the octopus.
Add the pasta to the boiling octopus stock (that lovely purple liquid....yum) and cook for 7-9 minutes, until al dente.
Once the pasta is cooked, run under cold water or place on ice and set aside.
Blend the roma tomatoes with a 1/4 cup of water or the octopus stock.
Chop the garlic into small pieces and saute on low heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Add the blended tomatoes to the pan with the sauteed garlic and simmer on low heat for 2 minutes.

Add one ladle-full or half a cup of the octopus stock to the pan.
Add two tablespoons of tomato paste and simmer the sauce on low for 2-3 minutes.

Add the octopus to the sauce and coat well.

Add the pasta and 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the dish and an additional ladle-full of pasta water.
Cook the paste on medium heat while stirring constantly for about 3-5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve and enjoy!

I hope this recipe encourages some of y'all to try something new this week.

As always, love & light.

Rachel.