Cocido Montañés (Cantabrian White-Bean Stew)

Cocido Montañés is Cantabria's mountain cocido: white alubias, berza, and pork from the cured larder, all served together in the same deep bowl. No chickpeas. Those belong to Cocido Lebaniego, its Cantabrian neighbor from Liébana. This one is cocina de cuchara, spoon food, thick with beans and greens and made for the cold north.

The beans decide it. Soak them overnight, start them in cold water with the sturdier pork, and bring the pot up slowly. Once it moves, keep it at the barest tremble. A hard boil splits the skins and turns the broth rough; a low simmer lets the beans stay whole while the berza softens into the pot and the pork gives what it has.

If you can't find Cantabrian alubias where you are, use small navy beans or good cannellini. Navy beans hold their shape better; cannellini turn creamier and a little softer, so watch them near the end. For berza, collard greens are the closest honest substitute, with savoy cabbage only if that is what the market gives you. Hunt for Spanish cooking chorizo and a firm morcilla; without the morcilla the stew still feeds you, but it loses that dark, rounded depth.

I add the morcilla late, because a burst morcilla muddies the whole pot, and nobody needs that lesson twice. In the Margin beside this one I have written: low fire after the greens go in. That is the dish. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.