Chef Isabel
Alubias de La Bañeza con Boletus
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Olla de San Antón Granadina
Created by
Olla de San Antón is Granada's winter feast pot: dried favas and white beans cooked slow with salted pork, fresh pork, morcilla, rice, and wild fennel.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
Celebration
One Pot
30 min
Active Time
3 hr 30 min cook•16 hr total
Yield6 servings
Olla de San Antón is Granadina, a winter pot from Granada for the feast of San Antón, when the matanza pork meets dried favas, white beans, rice, and wild fennel. This is cocina de cuchara, spoon food, but it is not just any bean stew. The dried habas, the pork from the household larder, and the fennel are what give it its Granada surname.
The method that decides it is the soaking and desalting before the pot ever reaches the fire. The dried beans need the night in water so they cook creamy instead of chalky, and the salted pork needs its own soak or the broth becomes a brine. Then the cooking is simple: start cold, bring it up gently, skim well, and hold it at a quiet simmer until the beans give in and the broth turns full.
If you are far from Granada, no hace falta haber pisado Espana. Use dried split-free fava beans, good dried white beans, Spanish morcilla if you can find it, and salted pork belly or smoked ham hock if you cannot get espinazo or costillas saladas. The taste will lean less toward the old matanza pot, but it will still be honest if the beans are good and you give them time.
Serve it as it is served there: the broth, beans, rice, and potatoes first, then the meats after as the pringa. In the Margin of my notebook this one has only a warning: do not salt early. The pork has plenty to say. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Olla de San Antón belongs to Granada and to the January feast of San Antón Abad, when winter cold and the household pig slaughter shaped what went into the pot. The dish uses dried favas, white beans, and the salted and cured parts of the pig that a family had put by, including ribs, spine, ear, tail, tocino, and morcilla. Wild fennel, hinojo, is the Granadino note that lifts the heavy pork broth and marks the stew as something more local than a plain olla.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried fava beans
Quantity
250g
soaked overnight
dried white beans
Quantity
250g
soaked overnight
salted pork ribs or salted pork bones
Quantity
300g
soaked overnight and rinsed
pork ear, tail, or trotter
Quantity
250g
cleaned
fresh pork belly or pork shoulder
Quantity
250g
in one piece
tocino or panceta
Quantity
150g
in one piece
ham bone or jamon bone (optional)
Quantity
1 small piece
morcilla, preferably Spanish onion morcilla
Quantity
2 links, about 200g total
onion
Quantity
1 large
peeled, left whole
garlic
Quantity
1 head
outer papery skin removed, left whole
bay leaves
Quantity
2
wild fennel or fennel fronds
Quantity
1 small bundle
tied with string
potatoes
Quantity
250g
peeled and cut into large chunks
short-grain rice
Quantity
80g
sweet pimenton
Quantity
1 teaspoon
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
salt
Quantity
only if needed at the end
water
Quantity
about 3 litres
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried fava beanssoaked overnight | 250g |
| dried white beanssoaked overnight | 250g |
| salted pork ribs or salted pork bonessoaked overnight and rinsed | 300g |
| pork ear, tail, or trottercleaned | 250g |
| fresh pork belly or pork shoulderin one piece | 250g |
| tocino or pancetain one piece | 150g |
| ham bone or jamon bone (optional) | 1 small piece |
| morcilla, preferably Spanish onion morcilla | 2 links, about 200g total |
| onionpeeled, left whole | 1 large |
| garlicouter papery skin removed, left whole | 1 head |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| wild fennel or fennel frondstied with string | 1 small bundle |
| potatoespeeled and cut into large chunks | 250g |
| short-grain rice | 80g |
| sweet pimenton | 1 teaspoon |
| extra virgin olive oil | 2 tablespoons |
| salt | only if needed at the end |
| water | about 3 litres |
Equipment Needed
- •Tall heavy olla or stockpot, 6 to 8 litres
- •Large bowls for soaking
- •Skimming spoon
- •Kitchen string for tying fennel
Instructions
- 1
Soak the beans
The night before, put the dried favas and white beans in a large bowl and cover them with plenty of cold water. Put the salted ribs or bones in a separate bowl of cold water. This separation matters: the beans need water to soften, and the pork needs water to lose enough salt that the broth stays edible.
Change the pork water once if the meat is very salty. Pésalo, no lo adivines for the beans, but trust your tongue for the pork: a tiny cut edge should taste seasoned, not harsh. - 2
Start the olla
Drain the beans and rinse the soaked pork. Put the favas, white beans, salted pork, ear or tail or trotter, fresh pork, tocino, and ham bone if using into a tall heavy pot. Add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, tied fennel, and about 3 litres cold water, enough to cover everything by 4cm. Bring it up slowly over medium heat.
- 3
Skim and simmer
When foam rises, skim it patiently until the surface looks clean. Lower the heat and keep the pot at a quiet simmer, not a rolling boil, for about 2 hours. A hard boil breaks the beans and clouds the broth; a gentle olla gives you tender beans and a broth with body. Shake the pot by its handles now and then instead of stirring hard.
- 4
Add potato and rice
When the beans are nearly tender, lift out the onion, garlic, and fennel bundle. Stir the sweet pimenton into the olive oil in a small cup, then add it to the pot with the potatoes. Simmer 15 minutes, then add the rice and cook 18 to 20 minutes more, until the rice is tender and the potatoes are soft at the edges.
- 5
Poach the morcilla
Add the morcillas for the last 10 minutes only, keeping the simmer low so they warm through without bursting. Taste the broth before adding any salt. Most pots need none, because the salted pork and morcilla have already done the work.
- 6
Serve in courses
Lift out the meats and morcilla to a board and let them settle for a few minutes. Serve the broth, beans, potatoes, and rice first in deep bowls. Then slice the pork, tocino, and morcilla and bring them to the table as the second course, the pringa, with bread for the broth.
Chef Tips
- •The real Granada flavor comes from the dried favas and the fennel. If you cannot find wild fennel, use fennel fronds and a small piece of fennel stalk, not fennel seed alone; seed turns the broth sweet and perfumed in the wrong way.
- •Salted pork varies wildly. Soak it separately and taste the broth before salting. Add salt at the end only if the pot asks for it. Salt early here and you may spend the afternoon trying to rescue what you made too strong.
- •Spanish morcilla is worth finding. Onion morcilla is closer for this pot than a firm, sweet blood sausage from elsewhere. If your only option is a delicate morcilla, poach it separately and add slices to the bowls so it does not break into the stew.
- •The rice keeps thickening as the olla sits. That is normal. For leftovers, loosen the stew with a little water and warm it gently, then taste again for salt.
Advance Preparation
- •Soak the favas and white beans overnight, 10 to 12 hours, in plenty of cold water.
- •Soak salted pork separately overnight, changing the water once if it is heavily salted.
- •The stew can be cooked one day ahead up to the point before adding rice, potatoes, and morcilla. Reheat gently, then finish with the potatoes, rice, and morcilla so the texture stays right.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 575g)
Calories
795 calories
Total Fat
43 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
25 g
Cholesterol
125 mg
Sodium
1650 mg
Total Carbohydrates
64 g
Dietary Fiber
19 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
41 g
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