Method● Rinse the octopus in cold water. Place it in an oven tray on top of the bulb of garlic sliced in half, the bay leaves, thyme, chilli and white wine. Cover and seal with aluminium foil and then place in a medium oven (150ºC) and cook for one hour. Test with a sharp pointed knife for tenderness. ● Once the octopus is cooked, remove from the tray and leave to cool. Strain the cooking juice, saving the two pieces of garlic. Peel and chop the onion very finely. In a large casserole warm half the olive oil and add the chopped onions, letting them stew very gently for 15 minutes. Add the rice, season well and stir until the rice starts to stick before adding the tomatoes and stirring those in turn. Squeeze the sweet pulp out of the cooked garlic cloves and add these to the rice before slowly adding the cooking liquor. Proceed to make a risotto in the usual way, adding water at the end if there is insufficient cooking liquor to cook the rice.● While the risotto cooks, separate the octopus tentacles, cutting them in half if they are very large, and cut the heads into four pieces. Toss these pieces with the remaining olive oil. In a large bowl, make a paste from the parsley, pimento, chopped garlic, lemon juice and salt. ● Just before the rice is cooked, heat a flat dry griddle pan until quite hot and lay the octopus pieces in it, letting them sear for two minutes before turning them and searing on the other side. Once hot and nicely browned, remove and place in the bowl with the parsley mixture. Serve the risotto on to six plates with the griddled octopus pieces on top.
