Espinacas con Garbanzos

Espinacas con garbanzos is Sevillian and Andaluz, the chickpea and spinach dish you meet in a bar as a tapa and at home as a small stew. What makes it itself is the majado: fried bread, garlic, cumin, pimentón, and vinegar pounded into a paste so the greens and chickpeas bind thickly instead of swimming. No cod. That belongs to a different Lenten potaje.

The step that decides it is the bread and garlic. Fry them gently in olive oil until the bread is deep gold and the garlic smells sweet, then pound them with cumin, pimentón, vinagre de Jerez, and a little chickpea liquid. That paste is the body of the dish. Rush it, or leave it coarse and dry, and you get chickpeas on spinach instead of espinacas con garbanzos.

No hace falta haber pisado España. Cooked chickpeas from a good jar or can are fine here, because this dish has always welcomed the chickpeas already in the pot; they won't be as buttery as chickpeas you soaked and simmered yourself, so give them ten minutes with a bay leaf and save the liquid. Fresh mature spinach is best, but frozen leaf spinach works honestly if you thaw it and squeeze out the extra water. The Margin beside this one says, "thick enough for bread." Siempre sale, si lo sigues.