Spain·Extremadura
Migas extremeñas
Extremaduran fried breadcrumbs
Stale bread crumbled and fried in oil with garlic, La Vera paprika, pepper and pork belly: Extremadura's quintessential shepherd's dish.
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cooking
- 30 min
- Total time
- 2 h 50 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Servings
- 4
Soaking the bread: 2 h
Ingredients
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Preparation
Tips
- Use bread at least a couple of days old: fresh bread clumps instead of crumbling.
- Stir constantly so the bread browns evenly and the crumbs stay loose.
- Add the paprika off the heat or over low heat, because it burns quickly and turns bitter.
- Serve them freshly made and in the pan itself, while still hot and crisp.
Variations
- Migas de pastor include chorizo, pork belly and a fried egg, and are common in La Mancha, Aragon and Extremadura.
- Depending on the area and what is at hand, they are served with sardines, salt cod, grapes, olives, potato or even milk.
Story of the recipe
Migas extremeñas: where it comes from.
Migas are a shepherds' dish: they made use of day-old bread, garlic, oil and some cured pork to feed themselves during long days in the countryside. Its history is old: the first documented recipe usually cited is by Francisco Martínez Montiño, in 1617, with «migas de gato» made from bread crust cut with a knife. Emilia Pardo Bazán described them as a primitive, Iberian dish, and some historians suggest an Andalusi influence from the tharid.
What sets Extremaduran migas apart is La Vera paprika, whose cultivation is attributed to the monks of the Yuste monastery in the 16th century, with its characteristic smoky aroma from drying over oak or holm-oak wood.
Sources
By RecetarioMundo.