A platter of summer vegetables—ripe tomatoes, green beans of all kinds, little thin-skinned potatoes, small cauliflowers, skinny carrots, quartered roasted beets, artichokes, if you can—along with a few halved hard-boiled eggs, a mortar of aioli redolent of young garlic, and, typically, chunks of warm salt cod, is one the most splendid dishes of French cooking. Instead of the cod, or maybe in addition to it, I like the elegant surprise of stewed octopus. If you can’t find good octopus, substitute squid or cuttlefish, though they’re just not the same. A Provençal rosé is made for this dish. Start in the morning.

You will need a slew of vegetables: green beans topped and blanched until soft; small potatoes such as Yellow Finns or German Butterballs, cooked until soft, then peeled and halved, or not; cauliflower broken into florets and blanched, keeping them crunchy; carrots peeled, 1/2 inch of stem left on, blanched but crunchy; artichokes cleaned and cooked until soft, then halved; small red beets roasted with a little water and salt, peeled and halved; nice, ripe tomatoes, quartered; sliced fresh fennel into pieces length-wise, keep raw.

OCTOPUS: Poach small octopus in salted water for 1 hour with a bay leaf and fennel tops. Cool in the poaching liquid, then cut octopus into 1-inch pieces. Sauté finely chopped onion in olive oil over low heat until golden but not browned. Turn up heat; add octopus pieces; sliced garlic; and a sprinkle of salt. Cook until liquid has evaporated. Add a splash of brandy and white wine and cook for a few minutes, until reduced to thick syrup. Add peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped ripe tomato and simmer slowly for about one hour, until octopus is tender. Adjust salt. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

AÏOLI: In a mortar, pound 5 or 6 garlic cloves and a big pinch of sea salt to a smooth paste. Briskly stir in three egg yolks and a teaspoon of water. Add olive oil, first a few drops at a time dribbled down the side of the mortar bowl, so oil flows slowly and with control into egg yolks. Continue until emulsion begins to hold, then gradually increase speed of oil addition, stirring constantly, until you have added about 2 cups, and mayonnaise is thick and glossy.

Arrange vegetables, halved hard-boiled eggs, and octopus on platters. If you wish, serve chunks of poached salt cod. Serve aïoli in bowls with big spoons on the side. And don’t forget the rosé.