Borreta from Alcoy recipe: spinach and salt cod

Borreta is a humble stew that gets by on very few things, and that is exactly why you can tell when it is made with care. This recipe follows a single version, Directo al Paladar’s for four servings, and doesn’t mix in measures from others: Comunitat Valenciana’s, for example, gives no quantities.

The salt cod: soaking and order of entry

It all starts the day before. Salted cod needs about 24 hours in cold water with two or three changes; without that step, neither the salt nor the flavour can be fixed afterwards. If you want the soaking in more detail, you will find it in the rice with salt cod and cauliflower.

Then, a detail you will appreciate: the salt cod is browned a little in the pot and set aside. It isn’t cooked with the potato or the broth. It comes back at the end, with the spinach, and needs only a minute. That way it keeps its flakes and doesn’t fall apart in the stew.

Cracked potato: what thickens borreta

The body of the stew comes from the potato, which is why it is cracked with the knife instead of being cut cleanly: as it breaks it releases starch and the broth binds by itself. Cook it over a low heat and watch that it doesn’t stick.

The onion goes in whole and peeled, and the ñoras deseeded. One of them can be taken out and crushed in the mortar and returned to the pot: it gives flavour and colour, but it is optional. If you like salt cod with dried pepper, see also the pericana.

The tomato and the paprika: two open questions

The recipe we follow uses a spoonful of tomato purée and admits that it isn’t traditional; Comunitat Valenciana mentions grated tomato. If you have it, the grated tomato is the option closest to what the sources from the area describe. It also works well with the purée.

The paprika is another question mark: the base source’s list includes a teaspoon, but the steps don’t say when it goes in. That is why it isn’t in the recipe: we don’t know at what point the source adds it.

The egg and the moment of serving

The eggs are cracked over the stew when everything else is done, one per person, and left for two or three minutes without stirring. The whites set and the yolk stays runny. It is an optional step, but it changes the dish.

Borreta doesn’t wait: it goes to the table hot, freshly made. If it stays on the heat, the yolk ends up setting. With bread for dipping you have a complete meal; it is a one-pot dish made for Lent.

What to serve with it

Directo al Paladar presents it as a one-dish meal: there is little point in surrounding it with more dishes. To drink, it suggests a red wine with a little ageing or, failing that, a rosé, and for dessert a sweet typical of those days, such as torrijas.

Every home, its own borreta

Directo al Paladar warns that the ingredients change from one town to another, so take this recipe as a starting point and adjust it to your taste. What doesn’t change is the balance: potato, spinach and salt cod, in a stew made in a single pot.

Mistakes that will cost you

• Seasoning at the start. The salt cod still carries salt, and once it is over-salted it can’t be rescued.
• Overcooking the spinach. It goes in at the end and only needs to soften.
• Cutting the potato without cracking it. The broth stays thin and the borreta loses body.
• Leaving the egg in the pot. It is served straight away.

If there are lots of you at the table

It is a spoon dish, for the table rather than the bar. If there are lots of you, we cook for groups at local fiestas, and for other spoon dishes and salt cod starters you also have the esgarraet and the titaina.