Iberia · Volume 04, The Cider and Cod Coast
Marmitako
Basque Country and Cantabria
Illustration
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Researched
- 16 sources cited
Traditionally made aboard boats in a marmita hung over the fire, using bonito del norte caught in summer, which is why this is a summer dish. Cantabria's own version, marmita or marmita cántabra, uses whatever whitefish was to hand, hake, monkfish or sole preferred.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 45 minutes.
Ingredients
- 600 g bonito del norte, cut into chunks
- 800 g potato, "chascada"
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 green peppers, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp pimentón
- 400 g tomato, crushed
- 500 ml fish stock
Method
- Sofrito the onion, pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft.
- Stir in the pimentón briefly, then the tomato, and cook down, 10 minutes.
- Add the potato, "chascada," torn rather than cleanly cut so it releases starch into the broth, and the fish stock.
- Simmer until the potato is tender, 20 minutes.
- Add the bonito del norte only in the final few minutes, 3 to 4 minutes, to avoid overcooking it, and rest briefly before serving.
What a modern chef changes
The fish's texture protected from the pot's residual heat.
Rung 2
Method
- Sear the tuna chunks briefly over live oak ember before adding them to the pot, giving the surface a restrained smoke character in the spirit of Rung 2, rather than cooking the fish entirely inside the broth.
- Finish the broth with a spoonful of aioli whisked in off the heat, a modern enrichment that plays on the same emulsion logic as pil-pil without pretending to be pil-pil itself.
- Serve the fish rested on top rather than submerged, so the ember character is not immediately steamed away by the hot broth beneath it.