Escudella

the Pyrenean winter pot: chickpeas, meats and vegetables boiled together with a great pilota meatball, the broth drunk first with pasta shells

Origin: Andorra la Vella & the Eastern Pyrenees

From the journey of Chickpea.

Escudella i carn d'olla is two courses out of one pot, and the order is fixed. The broth is served first with large pasta shells, galets, floating in it; the meats and vegetables come second on a platter, the carn d'olla. Chickpeas are the constant, going in with everything else and absorbing the fat of the pot, and in the Pyrenees they are the element that turns a meat broth into a meal. The centrepiece is the pilota, a single enormous meatball of minced pork and beef bound with breadcrumbs, garlic, and parsley, sometimes as large as a fist, poached in the broth for the last hour. It is divided at the table and its size is a matter of some pride. The dish belongs to Catalonia, to Andorra, and to the Catalan-speaking valleys on the French side of the range, and it is not owned by any one of them. In Catalonia it is the fixed Christmas Day meal, with a version called escudella de Nadal that adds the galets specifically for the occasion; in Andorra it is winter food more generally, in a country where the growing season is short and a pot that will feed a household for two days on cheap cuts and dried legumes is not a nostalgic choice. The name comes from escudella, the wooden or earthenware bowl the broth was served in, and the dish is recorded in Catalan sources from the medieval period onwards. Robert de Nola's Llibre del Coch, printed in 1520 and one of the earliest cookery books in any Iberian language, contains a recognisable ancestor of it.

Ingredients

Pot

400 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
500 g beef shin, in large pieces
400 g pork ribs
1 ham bone or piece of cured ham hock
2 chicken thighs
1 black botifarra or blood sausage
3 litres water

Vegetables

3 potatoes, peeled and halved
3 carrots, in thick lengths
2 turnips, quartered
0.5 small savoy cabbage, in wedges
1 leek, in thick lengths
1 celery stick

Pilota

300 g minced pork
200 g minced beef
80 g fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tbsp plain flour, for shaping

To serve

200 g galets or large pasta shells

Seasoning

2 tsp salt, or to taste

Method

Drain the soaked chickpeas and tie them loosely in a piece of muslin if you want to keep them together, which is the traditional practice.
Put the beef, pork ribs, ham bone, and chickpeas into a very large pot with the cold water and bring slowly to the boil.
Skim the surface thoroughly for the first fifteen minutes. This broth is served on its own as the first course and there is nothing to hide a cloudy one behind.
Simmer, half covered, for an hour and a half, never letting it boil hard.
Add the chicken and the carrots, turnips, celery, and leek and cook for a further forty-five minutes.
Make the pilota: mix both minces with the breadcrumbs, egg, garlic, parsley, and a good pinch of salt, and work it well so it holds together.
Shape it into one large oval, dust it all over with flour, and lower it gently into the pot.
Flour the outside of the pilota before it goes in. It seals the surface and is what keeps a meatball this size from disintegrating into the broth.
Add the potatoes and the cabbage and simmer for a final forty-five minutes, adding the botifarra for the last twenty.
Lift everything out onto a warmed platter, keeping the pilota whole to be sliced at the table, and season the broth.
Strain a good quantity of the broth into a clean pan, bring it to the boil, and cook the galets in it for the time on the packet.
Serve the broth and pasta first, then the meats, chickpeas, and vegetables on their platter as the second course.

Notes

Skim the broth properly, since it is served on its own. Tie the chickpeas in muslin if you want to lift them out cleanly. Flour the pilota before poaching it and keep it whole until the table. Cook the pasta in strained broth rather than in the pot itself, or the broth clouds. The vegetables go in by cooking time, hardest first. It is better on the second day, and the Catalan leftover dish, in which everything is chopped and fried together, is called trinxat in the Pyrenees and is a national dish of Andorra in its own right.

The Gastrographer

Name: Escudella
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 3 h 30 min
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Andorra la Vella & the Eastern Pyrenees
Ingredients: 400 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight; 500 g beef shin, in large pieces; 400 g pork ribs; 1 ham bone or piece of cured ham hock; 2 chicken thighs; 1 black botifarra or blood sausage; 3 litres water; 3 potatoes, peeled and halved; 3 carrots, in thick lengths; 2 turnips, quartered; 0.5 small savoy cabbage, in wedges; 1 leek, in thick lengths; 1 celery stick; 300 g minced pork; 200 g minced beef; 80 g fresh breadcrumbs; 1 egg; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 2 tbsp plain flour, for shaping; 200 g galets or large pasta shells; 2 tsp salt, or to taste

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control