Magro con Tomate Murciano

Magro con tomate is Murcian: cubes of lean pork browned in olive oil, then finished in a patient tomato sauce with onion and green pepper until the sauce clings. Murcia's huerta, its irrigated market garden, gives the dish its tomato and pepper, while pork gives it the sturdy heart of an everyday plate. This isn't pork with a spoonful of tomato over it. Meat and sauce finish together, and bread belongs beside them.

The step that decides it is reducing the tomato before the pork goes back into the pan. I wait until a spoon leaves a clear track across the bottom and the olive oil begins to show at the edges. That tells you the tomato's excess water has cooked away. Stop early and the sauce tastes raw and slips off the meat; wait for that little rim of oil and it turns thick, sweet, and deep red.

No hace falta haber pisado España. You don't need to have set foot in Spain. When good fresh tomatoes aren't in season, use canned whole peeled plum tomatoes. The sauce will be a little rounder and less bright, but far better than one made from pale winter tomatoes. A regular green bell pepper can replace the long frying pepper; it is fleshier and sweeter, so slice it thin and give it another 2 minutes in the pan. In the Margin beside this recipe I wrote only, "wait for the oil at the edge." Siempre sale, si lo sigues. It turns out if you follow it.