Chef Isabel
Aceitunas Aliñadas Andaluzas
Andalucía's green olives are cracked just enough to drink in garlic, cumin, oregano and sherry vinegar, then left two days until the brine turns fragrant and every bite carries the aliño.
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Salmorreta Alicantina
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Salmorreta is Alicante's dark, concentrated base for coastal rice: ñora, garlic, ripe tomato and parsley fried patiently until sweet, brick-red and strong enough to season the whole pan.
Sauces & Condiments
Spanish
Meal Prep
Make Ahead
Batch Cooking
20 min
Active Time
50 min cook•1 hr 10 min total
YieldAbout 300g, enough for six 4-person rice dishes
Salmorreta is Alicante's concentrated ñora sofrito, the slow-fried base beneath arroz a banda and many of the province's coastal arroces. Dried ñora, garlic and parsley are pounded, then worked into ripe tomato until the mixture becomes dark, thick and strong enough to carry a whole pan of rice. The ñora is its surname. Leave it out and you have a useful tomato sofrito, but you don't have salmorreta.
The ñora decides whether it works. Fry each piece for only a few seconds, just until its deep red colour darkens and the oil releases its sweet pepper smell. Let it turn black and the bitterness follows the paste all the way to the table. After that, give the tomato time. It must lose its water slowly until a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a clear path and green-gold oil appears around the edges.
If ñoras are hard to find, carne de pimiento choricero, jarred choricero pepper pulp, is the substitute a Spanish larder would reach for. It gives a deeper, less sweet result, but the base still does its work. Don't replace the ñora with smoked pimentón; the smoke belongs elsewhere. My Margin carries one warning beside this recipe: count seconds for the pepper, minutes for the tomato. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Salmorreta belongs to the fishing towns of the Alicante coast and especially to arroz a banda, rice cooked in the broth of morralla, the small rockfish and bony catch, while the boiled fish was eaten apart, a banda. Dried ñora pounded with garlic and parsley, then folded into reduced tomato, became one of the clear signatures of Alicante's coastal arroces and a concentrated way to carry pepper sweetness into fish broth.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried ñora peppers
Quantity
6 (about 30g whole)
stemmed, seeded and torn into pieces
ripe plum tomatoes
Quantity
700g
halved and grated, skins discarded, yielding about 600g pulp
peeled garlic cloves
Quantity
30g
left whole
flat-leaf parsley leaves and tender stems
Quantity
15g
washed and thoroughly dried
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
90ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
4g
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried ñora peppersstemmed, seeded and torn into pieces | 6 (about 30g whole) |
| ripe plum tomatoeshalved and grated, skins discarded, yielding about 600g pulp | 700g |
| peeled garlic clovesleft whole | 30g |
| flat-leaf parsley leaves and tender stemswashed and thoroughly dried | 15g |
| extra virgin olive oil | 90ml |
| fine sea salt | 4g |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy frying pan, about 26cm
- •Large stone or ceramic mortar and pestle
- •Box grater
- •Slotted spoon
- •Kitchen scale
- •Splatter screen
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the ñoras
Wipe the ñoras clean with a dry cloth. Pull away the stems, shake out every loose seed and tear each pepper into three or four flat pieces. Keep them dry, since water caught in a dried pepper will spit when it reaches the oil.
- 2
Fry the ñoras
Warm the olive oil in a 26cm heavy frying pan over medium-low heat. Fry the ñora pieces in two batches, pressing them briefly into the oil for 3 to 5 seconds on each side. Lift them out as soon as they smell sweet and toasted and their red colour deepens. They will become crisp as they cool.
The peppers can go from toasted to burnt in seconds. Discard any piece with a blackened patch. One burnt scrap will make the whole batch bitter, and tomato won't hide it. - 3
Soften the aromatics
Lower the heat and add the whole garlic cloves to the same oil. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, turning often, until pale gold and soft through the centre. Add the thoroughly dried parsley and fry for 15 seconds, just until it darkens and settles. Lift the garlic and parsley out with a slotted spoon.
- 4
Reduce the tomato
Carefully add the grated tomato and all its juice to the pepper-scented oil, then stir in the salt. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes to bring it to a steady bubble. Lower the heat and cook uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring more often as it thickens. It is ready when the colour has deepened to brick red, a spoon leaves a clear path across the pan for several seconds and olive oil shows around the edges.
Use a splatter screen if needed, but don't cover the pan. The water must escape or the tomato stays sharp and the salmorreta never becomes properly concentrated. - 5
Pound the aromatics
Crumble the cooled ñoras into a mortar and pound them to a coarse powder. Add the fried garlic and parsley and work everything into a thick, even paste. Mix in about 100g of the reduced tomato to loosen it, then scrape the mixture back into the frying pan. A narrow jug and stick blender will do the job if you have no mortar, but add no water.
- 6
Finish the paste
Cook the combined salmorreta over low heat for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom, until it holds in a mound and beads of oil gather at the rim. It should taste concentrated, sweet from the cooked tomato and ñora, with no raw garlic or watery finish. Cool in a shallow container before portioning.
For a rice serving four, made with 300 to 320g dry rice, use 45 to 50g salmorreta. Fry it briefly in the pan before adding the rice or broth, but don't let it catch.
Chef Tips
- •Buy whole ñoras that are deep garnet-red and smell sweet when opened. A dusty, musty pepper has been stored too long and will give you little beyond colour.
- •Use ripe plum tomatoes when the market has good ones. Out of season, use 650g good canned whole peeled tomatoes with their juices, crushed by hand, and cook them 5 to 10 minutes longer. The result is slightly sharper, but better than a pale, watery fresh tomato.
- •If ñoras aren't available, replace them with 20g jarred carne de pimiento choricero and add it with the pounded garlic and parsley. Choricero is fleshier and less sweet, so the salmorreta will taste deeper and lose a little of the ñora's gentle bitterness.
- •Do not use smoked pimentón as a substitute for the ñora. It brings smoke where Alicante salmorreta wants sweet dried pepper, and powder cannot provide the same body.
- •Refrigerate the cooled paste promptly in a clean, covered container for up to 5 days. This is not a shelf-stable preserve, even if oil covers the surface, so don't leave it in the cupboard.
- •Measure the base when you portion it. Fifty grams seasons a 4-person rice without bullying the fish broth. Pésalo, no lo adivines.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the salmorreta up to 5 days before cooking the rice. Its flavour settles after a night in the refrigerator, and nothing is lost.
- •For batch cooking, freeze the cooled paste in 50g portions for up to 3 months. Thaw a portion overnight in the refrigerator or put it frozen into the rice pan over low heat.
- •Label each frozen portion with its weight. Fish stocks vary in saltiness, so season the finished rice only after the measured salmorreta and stock are both in the pan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 13g)
Calories
40 calories
Total Fat
4 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
70 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
0 g
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