Orecchiette with Octopus Ragù and Chickpea Purée
This nutty grano arso pasta dish is all about the rich seafood tomato sauce.
- Serves
4–6
- Time
2 hours 30 minutes
At Botteghe Antiche, Chef Stefano D’Onghia makes orecchiette with grano arso flour. Literally translating to “burnt grain,” grano arso is thought to refer to what was left behind after the stubble of harvested wheat fields had been burnt off, often gathered by poor farmers before the next crop was planted. Store-bought pasta will suffice, and you can find dried grano arso orecchiette in specialty Italian food shops. D’Onghia pairs the pasta with indulgent chunks of octopus instead of the traditional broccoli rabe.
Featured in “The Cuisine of Puglia Defies Definition,” by Sebastian Modak.
Ingredients
For the chickpea purée:
- 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water for 24 hours, then drained
- 1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium celery stalk, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
- 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt
For the octopus ragù:
- 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
- 1 medium celery stalk, finely chopped
- 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 10 oz. octopus tentacles, cut into 1⁄2-in. pieces
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup fish stock
For the pasta:
- Kosher salt
- 1 lb. uncooked orecchiette, preferably grano arso
Instructions
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