Bacalao al Tiznao Manchego

Bacalao al tiznao is Manchego, from Ciudad Real in Castilla-La Mancha. Desalted salt cod is broken into generous flakes with dried red peppers, tomato, onion and garlic roasted until their skins blacken against the embers. There is no sofrito and no smooth sauce. The vegetables stay rough, the cod stays visible, and olive oil carries the taste of the fire through the dish.

The method that decides it is the roasting. You want blackened skins, tender flesh and the smell of the hearth, but the dried peppers can pass from fragrant to ash in seconds. Turn them constantly, pull them as soon as they blister, then soften them in warm water. Roast the cod only until it separates into moist flakes. I keep everything broad and uneven because tiznao should look handled, not puréed.

No hace falta haber pisado España. If you have no hearth or charcoal grill, roast the vegetables in a hot oven and finish them hard under the broiler. You will get the necessary char, though less wood smoke. Don't try to repair that with bottled smoke or a spoonful of pimentón. That makes another taste entirely.

If whole pimientos rojos secos are difficult to find, use six dried ñoras. They are smaller and sweeter, so the pepper pieces will be finer, but the dish remains recognizably Manchego. The note in my Margin is short: the vegetables may wear black at their edges, but the cazuela must never fill with gravy. Keep it loose and glossy. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.