Caldereta de Langosta de Menorca

Caldereta de langosta is Menorcan, and Fornells is the village whose name follows it most closely: red spiny lobster, a dark tomato and onion sofrito, a loose sea broth, and thin dry bread underneath to drink it all. It is not just any lobster soup. It is a clay-pot celebration from an island that knows the difference between broth and water.

The method that decides it is the sofrito, the slow onion base. Cook the onion and green pepper low until they go gold and soft, then cook the tomato until the oil shows at the edge and the raw smell is gone. Rush that and the lobster has nowhere to sit; you get expensive shellfish in sharp tomato water. Give it the time and the broth tastes as if it had more in it than it does.

Then be gentle with the lobster. The heads and shells give the pot its strength, but the tail meat only needs enough time to turn opaque and firm. If you are far from Menorca, use a live clawed lobster, bogavante, before you use pre-cooked tails. The claws make the broth a little richer and the meat a little sweeter, not exactly Fornells, but honest and good. No hace falta haber pisado España.

In my Margin beside this one I wrote pan seco, dry bread. Fresh bread turns to paste; dry bread softens and holds. Spoon the caldereta over it at the table, let it rest a few minutes in the bowl, and eat with more napkins than pride. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.