Ensalada Malagueña

Ensalada Malagueña belongs to Málaga, and the thing that makes it itself is the meeting of boiled potato, sweet orange, salt cod, and green olives under a firm hand of olive oil. It isn't a lettuce salad. It is a composed winter salad, filling enough for lunch, bright enough for a hot table outdoors, and very much from the Andalusian south.

The method that decides it is the cod. Desalt it fully, then taste it before it ever reaches the bowl. If it is still harsh, the orange cannot save it; if it has gone flat from too much soaking, the salad loses its backbone. You want it cleanly salty, flaked through the potato, with the orange cutting it and the oil bringing everything together.

If you are far from Málaga, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use good salt cod sold in thick pieces, or a reliable desalted bacalao if that is what you can find. Aloreña olives are the local green olive here; if you cannot get them, use cracked green olives with a little bite, not black olives from a tin. Make it when oranges are sweet and heavy. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.