Octopus Carpaccio 蛸のカルパッチョ

This is another variation of octopus carpaccio. In this iteration, instead of using balsamic vinegar I used  balsamic glaze which makes it less acidic and slightly sweet which went well with red wine. Since I had roasted red pepper sauce and “ikura” salmon roe I also added them as a garnish. We bought the octopus, which was from Japan, from Weee. The most common Japanese way of serving octopus is dressing it in miso-vinegar sauce or “sumiso 酢味噌” which goes well with sake but not with red wine. This version went very well with the red wine we were having..

Ingredients: (2 servings)

One octopus leg thinly sliced (The one we got was boiled and frozen).

1/4 sweet onion, very thinly sliced, 

1/4 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and deveined, thinly sliced 

thinly sliced  parmigiano reggiano, amount arbitrary

dabs of roaster red pepper sauce (or pesto)

Ikura salmon roe, not too much

Extra- virgin olive oil, balsamic glaze

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the bottom of the plate, drizzle on some thin lines of the balsamic glaze and olive oil. Spread the onion and Jalapeño pepper slices over the drizzle. Spread on the octopus slices. Add thin lines of the glaze and olive oil on top. Sprinkle on the ikura and dabs of the red pepper sauce. Top everything with thin slices of Parmesan cheese

This is a really good appetizer. I also tried it with pesto instead of red pepper sauce and we like the red pepper sauce better. Although we like to have octopus in Japanese style with either wasabi and soy sauce or with sumiso sauce, this type of carpaccio really works with wine but do not over do the ikura.