Cocido Pasiego

Cocido Pasiego belongs to the Pasiego valleys of Cantabria, and it is not the pork-and-bean cocido montañés wearing a different hat. This one is built on lamb, chickpeas, cabbage, potatoes, and sopas de pan, bread laid in the bowl and fed with the broth. It tastes of a mountain kitchen more than a town one: plain, filling, and serious about the stock.

The method that decides it is the simmer. Bring the lamb and chickpeas up gently, then keep the pot at a low tremble until the chickpeas turn creamy and the meat comes away from the bone without argument. Boil it hard and you get cloudy broth, ragged chickpeas, and lamb that tightens before it softens. Patience does the work. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.

If you're far from Cantabria, use bone-in lamb shoulder, neck, or shank. Don't use lean boneless cubes unless you add bones to the pot, because the broth is the dish's spine. A good dried chickpea will do if you can't find a Cantabrian one, and Savoy cabbage stands in well for berza. For the sopas, use day-old country bread with a tight crumb, not soft sandwich bread, which turns to paste and sulks in the bowl.

Serve it the old way if you can: first the bread sopas soaked with hot broth, then the chickpeas, cabbage, potatoes, and lamb. My Margin beside this one says only, "no lo apures," don't hurry it. That is less a note than a warning, but a useful one.