Htapodi Me Makaronaki Kofto (Stewed Octopus With Macaroni)

Ingredients

• 2 lbs octopus, thawed if frozen
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cinnamon stick (or 1/2 tsp ground)
• 3 cups diced fresh tomatoes or canned tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 lb elbow macaroni, cooked until still quite al dente (3-4 minutes before you'd normally drain it) or similar type like ziti pasta or penne
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. 1

   Rinse the octopus under cold, running water and place in pot dripping wet (you don't want to dry it off - this is the moisture it will cook in).

2. 2

   Add the red wine, garlic, onion, bay leaf and cinnamon and cover the pot.

3. 3

   Bring to the boil over low heat.

4. 4

   It is tender when pierced easily with a fork (this can vary from octopus to octopus, so time is not a good indicator of doneness in this case).

5. 5

   Remove the octopus and let cool until cool enough to handle and cut into bite-size pieces.

6. 6

   Meanwhile, in pot you have cooked the octopus in, add tomatoes and olive oil. Boil for 8-10 minutes to bind the sauce.

7. 7

   Stir in the cut octopus and nearly-cooked macaroni and simmer for the remaining 3-4 minutes required to cook your macaroni (if mixture appears too dry, add some of the pasta cooking water - you want this quite 'moist' but not soupy).

8. 8

   Stir in butter. Remove bay leaf and cinnamon stick.

9. 9

   Note: I use digitali pasta for this, but I can't get it into the ingredient list with the new Zaar format.

10. 10

    Bon Appetit.