Piquillos Rellenos de Marisco

Piquillos rellenos de marisco are Navarra's, because the pepper is Navarra's: the small red piquillo from Lodosa, roasted, peeled, and sweet enough to carry a filling without losing itself. This seafood version belongs on the Christmas table or at a dinner where the first plate should feel generous. It is not just any roasted pepper stuffed with cream. The pepper is thin, pointed, smoky-sweet, and it folds around the marisco like a little purse.

The filling decides the dish. Cook the onion and leek low for sofrito, the slow onion base, then add the prawns and scallops only long enough to lose their raw shine. The bechamel must cook down until a spoon leaves a clean path in the pan and the mixture holds in a mound. If it's loose, the piquillo leaks. If it's thick and glossy, stuffing is easy. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.

No hace falta haber pisado España. Buy jarred pimientos del piquillo if you can, preferably Lodosa; that matters more than fresh peppers. If you cannot find them, use good whole roasted red peppers from a jar, drain them well, and roll them around the filling instead of stuffing the tip. The taste will be sweeter and less smoky, and the shape won't be Navarra's, but the table will still eat well.

In my Margin beside this one I wrote: filling cool, sauce warm, hands calm. Pésalo, no lo adivines. Weigh it, don't guess, especially with the flour and liquid, because a stuffing that holds itself is what lets the pepper stay graceful.