In the area of beyond-planar graphs, i.e. graphs that can be drawn with some local restrictions on the edge crossings, the recognition problem is prominent next to the density question for the different graph classes. For 1-planar graphs, the recognition problem has been settled, namely it is NP-complete for the general case, while optimal 1-planar graphs, i.e. those with maximum density, can be recognized in linear time. For 2-planar graphs, the picture is less complete. As expected, the recognition problem has been found to be NP-complete in general. In this paper, we consider the recognition of simple optimal 2-planar graphs. We exploit a combinatorial characterization of such graphs and present a linear time algorithm for recognition and embedding.