So vast and varied is the Spanish landscape that there exists only one common dish across the country: cocido, a two-course soup made with meat, bones, fresh pork sausage, the foot or ear of a pig, a piece of stewing hen, garbanzo beans, some root vegetables, and herbs. After simmering for hours, these flavor-inducing ingredients are removed, and small pasta shapes are boiled in the broth. The first course is a bowl of broth with pasta; the second is a plate of the garbanzo beans, meats, and sausages. Of all of Spain’s dishes, cocido most defines country cooking: economical but flavorful, simple, adaptable to what’s in season. It’s also filling, warm, and nourishing, three other important attributes of the rural kitchen.
But just as it’s impossible to talk of a single cocina española (Spanish cuisine), it’s impossible to talk about a single, nationwide cocido. Cocido can be defined only in regional terms, each with its distinct accent—cocido andaluz in Andalucía, with pieces of winter squash added to the vegetables and seasoned with saffron and even some sprigs of hierbabuena (mint); escudella i carn d’olla (see page 22) in Catalunya, with its different types of meats (chicken, pork, veal, lamb) and a large, oblong meatball or two; cocido gallego in Galicia, where the pig is the protagonist, and sometimes grelos (turnip greens) are added; and cocido vasco in the Basque Country, with other dried beans in addition to the garbanzos.
One of the most original versions in Spain is cocido maragato from around the area of Astorga in Castilla y León. Maragatos were muleteers (mule drivers) of still-disputed ethnic origin. (Some ethnologists think they are descendants of the original Berbers who came to Spain from North Africa in the eighth century.) While the ingredients might be similar to other cocidos in the interior of the country, the courses are eaten in reverse order: first the meat, then the vegetables and garbanzo beans (the local, tiny variety from nearby Fuentesaúco), then, finally, the broth.
Why the difference in order? I asked one of the Saez brothers who run, for the fifth generation, Restaurante La Peseta in Astorga, where cocido is a celebrated specialty. He repeated the saying about Maragato cocido that roughly translates to this: “If there is anything left over, then let it be the broth.”