Preparations may take a while.  But if you do it right, you will end up with very tender tentacles. Definitely worth the effort. And a great way to impress your dinner guests as well!

You can serve tentacles as a side dish or slice them up and add the slices to a seafood salad. They also make a great topping for a Pizza Frutti di Mare.

Preparing the octopus

Octopus is not tender by itself; it takes some work. Here is the method to prep your octopus (method below for about 1 kilogram of pulpo). Freezing the pulpo for 24 hours before you cook it, this will help too (breaks down the cell structure somewhat). But thaw out the frozen pulpo before going to the next step!

• In a large (5 liter) pan, bring 5 l of water to a boil.
• Add 2 tablespoons of salt, the pepper corns, bay leaves, juniper berries and two tablespoons of vinegar.
• In some recipes you will read that for the curliest tentacles, you have to dip them into the water and take them out again several times before gently dropping the pulpo into the boiling water. I have never seen great effects of this repeated dipping, but it is a nice ritual. Make sure the pulpo is fully covered by the boiling water.
• Keep the water at a low boil for an hour. Turn the heat of and let the pulpo cool down in the water.
• Once cold, take the pulpo out and cut or slice into the pieces suitable for grilling and for your dish. 
• Put the pieces of pulpo in a bowl, add the lemon juice, olive oil, pepper and salt and stir.

Ingredients of the brine

• 1 kg of octopus tentacles still joined but the head removed (usually known as "Pulpo"), previously prepared as described below. 
• 5 l of water.
• 10 Juniper berries.
• 10 white pepper corns.
• 2 tablespoons of salt.
• 3 bay leaves (more about bay leaves).
• 2 tablespoons of vinegar.
• Some lemon juice.
• Some olive oil.
• Pepper and salt to add extra flavor.

Once the tentacles have cooled down, you can grill them. Use an open fire (if you have it) or a grilling skillet. Don't overcook, but make sure the outside is crispy. If servinf on a salad, choose between serving whole tentacles or slices; this may depend on the sensitivity of your guests.

The Greek Method of Tenderizing

Pulpo can be very chewy. It is important to prepare the octopus carefully. There are basically two ways to tenderize. The first one is described above, the second is used by fishermen and is illustrated in this clip. 

A variation on this method is to beat the tentacles with a heavy object, such as a rock, a kitchen hammer, or a rolling pin. The rule is that you should hit each part of the pulpo 100 times to get perfectly tenderized meat.