Portugal's most beloved national dish: pork and clams marinated in black pepper, paprika and white wine, pan-fried until golden
Origin: Alentejo, Portugal
From the journey of Black Pepper.
Carne de porco à alentejana is one of those rare dishes that manages to be simultaneously a regional speciality and a national emblem, found in every taberna and tasca from the Alentejo plains to Lisbon's dockside restaurants to the saudade-soaked kitchens of the Portuguese diaspora in Brazil, the Azores, and Mozambique. Its name is slightly misleading: although the recipe claims Alentejo heritage, its pairing of pork with clams (a combination once considered peculiar outside Portugal) is found across the Algarve and the coastal regions too, and its history is thoroughly tangled in the question of which came first, the inland or the coastal version. What is not in question is the role of black pepper. The marinade, called vinha d'alhos (wine and garlic) (is the soul of the dish, and black pepper is as essential to it as the garlic and the wine. The pork sits in this marinade for a minimum of four hours, ideally overnight, absorbing the pepper's sharp heat, the garlic's pungency, and the wine's acidity until the meat is permeated through. When fried, the marinade caramelises on the surface of the pork cubes, creating a crust of extraordinary depth) pepper-forward, garlicky, faintly boozy (that contrasts with the briny sweetness of the clams added in the final minutes. This is also, inescapably, a dish of empire. Portugal's position as the world's leading pepper trader from 1498 onward meant that black pepper) once worth its weight in gold in much of Europe (became relatively accessible in the kitchens of Lisbon and the Alentejo earlier than anywhere else in the continent. A marinade built on freshly ground black pepper was, in the early 16th century, a statement of Portugal's new commercial power as much as it was a flavour choice. The pepper that Vasco da Gama had sailed to India to secure came home and went directly into the pot. The paprika in the recipe arrived slightly later, from the New World via the Spanish, and its incorporation into the vinha d'alhos marinade probably dates to the mid-16th century) a second act of culinary empire, this time from the Atlantic crossing. Together, black pepper and paprika create the marinade's distinctive rust-red colour and layered heat that defines the dish today. Serve with batatas fritas (hand-cut fried potatoes) and pickled vegetables, as is traditional.
The choice of wine matters more than in most recipes, use something you would drink. A dry Alentejo white wine brings an authentic regional character. For a deeper flavour, substitute half the white wine with dry Madeira or vinho verde. Some Alentejo cooks add a splash of aguardente (Portuguese brandy) to the pan just before adding the clams and let it flame briefly, this adds another aromatic layer. The dish is also made with cockles (berbigão) in coastal regions, or entirely without shellfish in inland Alentejo, where the pork alone in its pepper-paprika marinade is considered the 'true' version.
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