Carcamusas Toledanas

Carcamusas are Toledo's tavern stew, rooted firmly in Castilla-La Mancha: pieces of pork cooked tender in a thick tomato sauce with peas, jamón, chorizo and just enough guindilla to warm the mouth. That particular meeting of fresh pork and the cured larder makes it carcamusas, not simply another pork stew. In Toledo it arrives in a small cazuela beside a caña, but at home it makes a full supper once bread reaches the table.

The method that decides it is the sofrito, the slow onion base, followed by a proper reduction of the tomato. Cook the onion until dark gold and sweet, then let the tomato lose its raw smell and thicken until the oil shows at the edge. Rush that part and the sauce stays watery and sharp. Give it those few honest minutes and it clings to the pork as it should.

No hace falta haber pisado España, you don't need to have set foot in Spain. If Spanish cooking chorizo is difficult to find, use the same weight of Portuguese chouriço; it will be a little smokier but keeps the necessary cured pork, garlic and paprika character. Prosciutto can stand in for jamón serrano, though the finished sauce will taste slightly sweeter and less salty. Frozen peas are not a disgrace here. They are dependable, and many Toledo kitchens reach for them.

Rest the cazuela for ten minutes before serving, because the sauce tightens and the pork settles. My Margin beside this one says only, "pan cerca," keep bread nearby. Siempre sale, si lo sigues, it turns out if you follow it.