Polvo à Lagareiro

The story

Polvo à lagareiro, octopus roasted in plenty of olive oil with potatoes, takes its name from the lagareiro—the worker at an olive oil mill (a lagar) who once tasted the fresh, just-pressed oil by dipping bread or a potato into it. Over time the name passed to a whole family of dishes made with generous, almost lavish amounts of olive oil. The octopus is first boiled until tender, then roasted at high heat with potatoes cooked in their skins, everything doused with fresh olive oil and garlic before it goes into the oven. This way of roasting in abundant oil is typical of Portuguese cooking in general, where olive oil is not used sparingly as a “seasoning” but as a full-fledged ingredient of the dish. Polvo à lagareiro is a common choice for the holiday table in families for whom the sea is a bigger part of their identity than the country's interior. For Portuguese families in the diaspora, this dish calls for good olive oil as an essential ingredient, not just an addition—a difference you can taste immediately in the finished dish.