Huevos a la Riojana

Huevos a la Riojana belongs to La Rioja: eggs set over a soft stew of potatoes, roasted red peppers, tomato, and chorizo. The peppers of the Ebro and Najerilla valleys aren't decoration here. They melt into the sauce, while the chorizo stains the oil brick red and seasons the potatoes. That pepper-heavy cazuela is what gives the eggs their surname.

The method that decides the dish is the sofrito, the slow onion and tomato base. Cook it low until the onion is dark gold, the tomato has lost its water, and beads of red oil return around the edges. That slow cooking gives the sauce its sweetness. Hurry it and the potatoes sit in thin tomato water instead of a proper stew.

Far from La Rioja, use jarred whole roasted red peppers that haven't been pickled. They're fleshier and a little sweeter than pimiento riojano, but they soften into the sauce correctly. A mild, semi-cured Spanish cooking chorizo can stand in for chorizo riojano; a hard cured sausage gives less fat and stays firmer. My Margin says only this: wait for the egg white, not the yolk. Cover the pan, keep the heat low, and lift it as soon as the whites turn opaque. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.