Chef Isabel
Aguaillo de la Sierra de Cadiz
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Olleta de Blat Alicantina
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Olleta de blat is Alicante mountain spoon food: soaked wheat berries, white beans, pork, pumpkin, and greens cooked until the grain swells and thickens the pot. Keep it slow and it behaves.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
One Pot
Budget Friendly
25 min
Active Time
2 hr 45 min cook•3 hr 10 min total
Yield6 servings
Olleta de blat is Alicante's inland olla, Valencian spoon food with wheat as its signature: soaked blat, white beans, pork, pumpkin, greens, and a dark little sofrito, the slow onion-and-tomato base. The whole wheat is what makes it this dish and not a neighbour's bean pot. It swells, gives off starch, and turns the broth thick enough to carry a spoon. Esto es de Alicante, no de España a secas.
The method that decides it is patience with the grain and beans. Soak them well, start them in cold water with the pork, and keep the pot at a low tremble. A hard boil breaks the beans and leaves the wheat tough outside and chalky inside. Add the pumpkin late so it softens and sweetens the broth without disappearing before the beans are ready.
If you're far from Alicante, no hace falta haber pisado España. Look for blat picat, trigo pelado, or pearled wheat berries; ordinary whole wheat berries will work, but they need more time and keep more chew. Cannellini stand in for small white fesols. Morcilla de cebolla is the right sausage here; if you can't find it, use a Spanish morcilla added at the end, or leave it out and accept a leaner pot.
My Margin for this one says only: watch the bottom. Wheat settles. Sweep the pot gently now and then, especially after the sofrito goes in, and don't let it dry. Siempre sale, si lo sigues, but only if you give the grain the time it asks for.
Olleta de blat belongs to Alicante's inland Valencian comarcas, especially l'Alcoià, El Comtat, and the Marina Alta valleys, where wheat, beans, pumpkin, and the pig larder made a winter olla sturdy enough for a day's work. The word blat is Valencian for wheat; older cooks used blat picat, grain rubbed or pounded to loosen its husk, so the stew thickened from the grain itself rather than from rice alone. Like many ollas, it changed from village to village, with cardoons, chard, turnip, pork ribs, or morcilla de cebolla depending on the household and the matanza.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
blat picat, trigo pelado, or pearled wheat berries
Quantity
250g
soaked overnight
dried small white beans
Quantity
250g
soaked overnight
pork ribs
Quantity
300g
cut into 5cm pieces
panceta or fresh pork belly
Quantity
150g
in one piece
split pork trotter (optional)
Quantity
1, about 300g
bay leaf
Quantity
1
cold water
Quantity
2.3 litres, plus more as needed
olive oil
Quantity
3 tablespoons
onion
Quantity
1 large, about 200g
finely chopped
ripe tomatoes
Quantity
2, about 250g
grated
sweet pimentón
Quantity
1 teaspoon
saffron threads (optional)
Quantity
1 pinch
turnip or rutabaga
Quantity
200g
peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
pumpkin or winter squash
Quantity
300g
peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
Swiss chard or cardoon stalks
Quantity
200g
stems sliced and leaves chopped
morcillas de cebolla
Quantity
2, about 180g total
pricked once
fine sea salt
Quantity
10g, plus more to taste
added near the end
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| blat picat, trigo pelado, or pearled wheat berriessoaked overnight | 250g |
| dried small white beanssoaked overnight | 250g |
| pork ribscut into 5cm pieces | 300g |
| panceta or fresh pork bellyin one piece | 150g |
| split pork trotter (optional) | 1, about 300g |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| cold water | 2.3 litres, plus more as needed |
| olive oil | 3 tablespoons |
| onionfinely chopped | 1 large, about 200g |
| ripe tomatoesgrated | 2, about 250g |
| sweet pimentón | 1 teaspoon |
| saffron threads (optional) | 1 pinch |
| turnip or rutabagapeeled and cut into 2cm chunks | 200g |
| pumpkin or winter squashpeeled and cut into 3cm chunks | 300g |
| Swiss chard or cardoon stalksstems sliced and leaves chopped | 200g |
| morcillas de cebollapricked once | 2, about 180g total |
| fine sea saltadded near the end | 10g, plus more to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •5 to 6 litre heavy olla or Dutch oven
- •Small frying pan for the sofrito
- •Wooden spoon with a flat edge
- •Skimming spoon
Instructions
- 1
Start the pot
Drain the soaked wheat and beans and rinse them well. Put them in a 5 to 6 litre heavy pot with the pork ribs, panceta, optional trotter, bay leaf, and 2.3 litres cold water. Bring it up slowly over medium heat, skimming the grey foam that rises, then lower the heat before the boil gets rough.
If your wheat berries are unpearled and still hard after soaking, simmer them alone in plain water for 30 minutes before they join the pot. Pearled wheat and blat picat can start with the beans. - 2
Hold the tremble
Keep the pot at a quiet tremble for 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, until the beans are beginning to soften and the wheat grains look swollen but still have a firm centre. Sweep the bottom gently with a wooden spoon every 20 minutes; wheat sinks and catches if you pretend it won't. Add hot water if the liquid drops below the solids.
Do not salt the beans yet. Give them time to soften first, then season the pot once the skins have relaxed. - 3
Cook the sofrito
While the pot simmers, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook it low for about 15 minutes, until dark gold and jammy. Stir in the grated tomato and cook 8 to 10 minutes more, until the liquid has almost gone. Pull the pan off the heat, stir in the pimentón and saffron, then loosen it with a ladle of broth and scrape it into the olla. That slow sofrito is the sweetness of the stew; rush it and the pot tastes boiled and thin.
Pimentón burns fast. Stir it in off the heat, where it can bloom in the oil without turning bitter. - 4
Add the vegetables
When the beans are nearly tender, add the turnip and the chard stems or cardoon stalks, then stir in 5g of the salt. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Add the pumpkin and chard leaves and cook another 25 to 35 minutes, until the beans are creamy, the wheat is tender, and the pumpkin edges have softened into the broth.
- 5
Finish the morcilla
Lay the pricked morcillas de cebolla on top for the last 10 to 12 minutes, just long enough to heat through and give the broth their sweetness. Do not boil them hard or they burst and cloud the pot. Taste and add the remaining salt only if the stew asks for it.
- 6
Rest and serve
Turn off the heat and let the olleta rest 15 minutes. Lift out the panceta, trotter, and morcillas, slice what needs slicing, and return enough to the pot so every bowl gets a little. The stew should be thick but spoonable; loosen it with a splash of hot water if the wheat has drunk too much. Serve deep, with bread for the broth.
Chef Tips
- •Buy the wheat carefully. Blat picat or trigo pelado is right; pearled wheat berries are the closest substitute abroad. Farro works at a pinch but tastes nuttier and stays a little chewier. Bulgur is not the same thing and turns the olla pasty.
- •Use small white beans with good turnover. Old beans stay chalky no matter how sweetly you talk to them, and higher heat only breaks their skins. Soak them overnight and cook them low.
- •Morcilla de cebolla, onion blood sausage, is the Alicante finish. Add it near the end so it stays whole. If you can't find it, use a Spanish morcilla and expect a different sweetness, or leave it out and let the pork and sofrito carry the pot.
- •Pumpkin matters here. Choose a firm winter squash that tastes good roasted, not a watery one, and add it late. It should round the broth, not vanish before the wheat and beans are done.
- •Canned beans are possible, but they change the broth. Cook the soaked wheat with the pork until nearly tender, then add two drained 400g cans of white beans for the final 30 minutes. The olla will be quicker and a little less creamy. Fair trade, as long as you know it.
- •This is better the next day. The wheat thickens it overnight, so reheat gently with a little water and stir from the bottom. A young Alicante Monastrell, not too heavy, sits well beside it.
Advance Preparation
- •Soak the wheat and white beans separately overnight in plenty of cold water. They swell more than you think, so cover each by at least 8cm.
- •The sofrito can be cooked up to 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Add it to the pot after the first long simmer.
- •The finished olleta keeps 3 days refrigerated and deepens as it rests. Reheat it slowly and loosen with water, not stock, so the seasoning stays clean.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 680g)
Calories
780 calories
Total Fat
39 g
Saturated Fat
12 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
27 g
Cholesterol
100 mg
Sodium
1200 mg
Total Carbohydrates
73 g
Dietary Fiber
15 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
35 g
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