Piquillos Rellenos de Marisco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Fine sieve
• •Wide frying pan
• •Small saucepan
• •Blender
• •Small spoon or piping bag with wide opening
• •Shallow cazuela or baking dish

Instructions

1. 1

   Sort the peppers

   Drain the piquillos in a sieve set over a bowl and reserve 80ml of their red roasting liquid. Choose the 16 best whole peppers for stuffing and set aside 4 torn or smaller peppers for the sauce. Pat the whole peppers dry inside and out with kitchen paper, but don't rinse them; that roasting juice is part of the dish. If one has a small split, keep it. You can overlap the edges when you fill it.

   Jarred piquillos are already roasted and peeled. Treat them gently and they will behave; tug at them and they tear.
2. 2

   Cook the sauce

   Warm 30ml of the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Add 100g of the diced onion and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until soft and sweet but not browned hard. Add 1 minced garlic clove for 30 seconds, then add the 4 reserved piquillos, the crushed tomato, 50ml of the white wine, 200ml of the stock, and the reserved pepper liquid. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, blend smooth, stir in the cream, and season with a little of the salt. Keep it warm.

3. 3

   Build the filling

   Warm the remaining 30ml olive oil in a wide frying pan. Add the remaining 120g onion, the leek, and a pinch of the salt, then cook low and steady for 12 to 15 minutes until the vegetables are soft, dark gold, and jammy. This is the sofrito, the slow onion base. Rush it and the filling tastes thin. Add the remaining 2 garlic cloves and stir for 30 seconds.

4. 4

   Thicken it properly

   Add the chopped prawns and scallops to the sofrito and cook for 60 to 90 seconds, just until the seafood loses its raw shine. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, scraping the pan so it doesn't taste dusty. Add the remaining 30ml white wine and let it almost disappear, then add the warm milk and the remaining 100ml stock in four additions, stirring well each time. Cook for 7 to 9 minutes, until a spoon dragged through the filling leaves a clean path and the mixture holds in a soft mound. Stir in the parsley, white pepper, nutmeg, and enough salt to make it taste full. Spread it on a plate and cool for 15 minutes.

5. 5

   Fill the piquillos

   Spoon about 30 to 35g filling into each piquillo, using a small spoon or a piping bag with a wide opening. Don't pack them hard; the pepper should close around the filling, not split from it. Spread a thin layer of sauce in a shallow cazuela or baking dish and lay the filled peppers seam side down in one layer.

6. 6

   Settle in sauce

   Spoon the remaining sauce over and around the peppers. Set the cazuela over low heat, cover loosely, and warm for 10 to 12 minutes, until the sauce gives a quiet bubble at the edges and the peppers are hot through. Do not boil them. The peppers are already cooked, and the seafood is tender; a hard boil splits the piquillos and tightens the filling.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Take the cazuela off the heat and let the peppers rest for 5 minutes so the filling settles. Spoon a little sauce back over the top, finish with a small scatter of parsley and a thin thread of olive oil, and serve warm with bread for the sauce. Tal como se hace allí, plain and careful.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pimientos del piquillo from Lodosa if you can. The pepper is the dish here: thin, sweet, lightly smoky, and soft enough to fold. A fresh red pepper roasted at home is thicker and wetter, and it won't fill the same way.
• •If piquillos are impossible to find, use whole jarred roasted red peppers, drain them very well, and roll them around the filling. It will taste sweeter and less sharp, and the shape changes, but it is the honest substitute a home kitchen can manage.
• •Frozen raw prawns and scallops are fine if they are good quality. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and pat them dry before chopping, or they will water down the bechamel and make the peppers slump.
• •The filling must be thicker than a sauce and softer than croquette dough. Drag a spoon through the pan; if the path fills at once, keep cooking. If it stays open for a moment, you have it.
• •Serve with a dry Navarra white, a young Garnacha rosado, or fino sherry. Nothing sweet. The peppers are already sweet enough.

Advance Preparation

• •The sauce and filling can be made up to 24 hours ahead. Chill them separately, covered, then bring the filling close to room temperature before stuffing so it spoons cleanly.
• •The peppers can be stuffed and set in the sauce up to 12 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate, then warm gently over low heat or in a 160C oven until hot through.
• •Leftovers keep for 2 days in the refrigerator. Reheat slowly with a splash of stock or water if the sauce has thickened.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 240g)