Make Pasta Night Feel A Little More Luxe With One Canned Seafood

Pasta night can be as simple or complex as you have the ability, time, and ingredients to make it. Throw spaghetti in a roaring pot of boiling water and toss it with jarred marinara or make homemade pasta with decadent seafood — the option is up to you. When you do want a relatively simple dinner though, perhaps with seafood, you don't necessarily have to go all out for a luxe meal that's still easy to pull off. It's why we think one of the best uses for canned octopus is to give a serious upgrade to pasta night.

Octopus has a rather mild taste compared to other types of seafood, which is a benefit when you want the sauce and other ingredients in the pot to shine. Mildly sweet, octopus offers a unique touch to pasta with that seafood flare. Using fresh octopus requires time and effort because you should boil it first to make it tender then incorporate it into the dish. Canned octopus, however, is ready to eat just like tinned fishes like anchovies and tuna, so the prep time is greatly reduced. There are many types of canned octopus to cook with, like this DG Octopus with Garlic Sauce that goes for less than $14 on Amazon.

Luckily for your elevated pasta dinner, the canned octopus doesn't require much prep work. Depending on the type you score, and the desired size, you might want to cut the tentacles into smaller pieces. For every four servings of pasta, use around 8 ounces of octopus. Now, you have a couple of options. If you want to use your go-to recipe, or keep it easy and go with store-bought sauce, cook according to the recipe and add the octopus to heat through. Drain off any of the liquid in the can to incorporate it into the dish, or put in more effort and use the oil to make a homemade sauce perhaps with lemon juice for acidity, red chili flakes for heat, and some olive oil to pull it all together.

To highlight the mild sweetness of the octopus, use the tinned ingredient in our creamy garlic butter noodle recipe. For more richness with a red sauce, toss the octopus in this special Italian Sunday sauce that requires just a few household ingredients to offset the price of the seafood addition. And if octopus isn't appetizing, here are more canned fish options to add to your fancy pasta dinner.