Last updated on July 16th, 2025 at 08:01 am
Bourdeto with octopus
A fantastic dish.
Here’s the recipe for the octopus Bourdeto as the old housewives make it in Corfu.
Ingredients needed
- A medium or large fresh octopus
- 1 glass of white vinegar
- 1 glass of olive oil (250-300 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon of hot red pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon of sweet red pepper
- 1 big onion in 4 pieces
- 4 large potatoes
- 50-70gr fresh lemon juice, this is the most important!
Execution of the recipe
Put in a pot 3-4 glasses of water and a glass of white vinegar and heat it.
Put in the pot the octopus for a while and take it off to cut it.
Cut the octopus into pieces as you like them and put them in another pot just to sauté on low heat until they get their liquids out.
Corfiot and Greek Cuisine
After the liquids leave, pour a glass of olive oil, half a teaspoon of hot red pepper, half a teaspoon of sweet red pepper, the four pieces of onion, and water until it is completely covered.
Let it boil until it is dry and then pour in 4 potatoes, sliced in pieces, as large as you like, and add a little more water.
Keep cooking, The food is ready for serving when it is spotted and has been left almost only with the oil.
At this moment put the lemon juice in and mix, leave it for another minute and the food is ready.
Some prefer it not completely dry, while others, especially when it comes to eating it like meze, let it dry and stay only with the oil, so it’s more spicy.
Attention, do not use any salt at any stage of cooking! The octopus has already too much.
It is an awesome recipe, both as food and as meze.
Note: The octopus Bourdeto has succeeded if it has a nice dark red color, not black, and is a little bit juicy but mostly oily, the olive oil has become slightly reddish and remains clear, the octopus has not dissolved and the tentacles are intact.
The secret is before cooking, the octopus has to be very well hit, we hit it on a cliff by the sea where we fished it, and then it is grazed for about half an hour, so it becomes tender, otherwise, it does not get boiled.
Of course, the octopus is dead long before the process of hitting it on the rocks.
Bourdeto can be done with a frozen octopus too, is the same thing if the octopus is from here and we have frozen it ourselves. But we avoid using large frozen octopuses from the oceans.
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