Massa de Pimentão

the red pepper paste of the Alentejo: sweet peppers salted for days, then pounded with garlic and olive oil into a brick-red marinade that is the foundation of Portuguese pork cookery

Origin: Portugal

From the journey of Bell Pepper.

Portugal received the capsicum from Spain within a few decades of Columbus's return, and it did two things with it that changed the world's cooking. The first was to carry it: Portuguese ships, working the Atlantic coast of Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the China seas, became the great disseminators of the pepper, taking it to West Africa, to Goa, to Malacca, to Japan, and to their own colony of Brazil, so that a very large share of the world's pepper-eating traditions trace back to a Portuguese hull. The second was to make of it something entirely its own. In the hot, dry Alentejo, the great plain south of the Tagus, sweet red peppers are layered with coarse salt in an earthenware crock and left for several days until they soften and give up their water, then pounded with garlic, olive oil, and a little of their brine into massa de pimentão, a thick, brick-red, faintly fermented paste. It is not a sauce but a marinade and a seasoning, rubbed over pork before roasting or frying, stirred into stews and soups, and spread on bread, and it is the defining flavour of Alentejano cooking. Its most famous use is carne de porco à alentejana, the celebrated dish of pork marinated in the paste and cooked with clams, in which the sweet, salty, slightly fermented pepper is what marries the meat to the shellfish.

Ingredients

  • 8 whole large sweet red peppers (pimentos)
  • 150 g coarse sea salt
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 150 ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to seal
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika (optional, for colour)
  • 1 whole bay leaf, optional

Method

  1. Wash and dry the peppers, then halve them, discarding the stalks, seeds, and white membranes. Cut each half into two or three broad strips.
  2. Layer the pepper strips skin-side down in a glass or earthenware container, sprinkling coarse salt generously between each layer and finishing with a good covering of salt. Add the bay leaf if using. Cover and leave in a cool place for 3 to 5 days.
  3. After 3 to 5 days the peppers will have softened and be sitting in a good deal of red brine. Lift them out, and pull or scrape away the skins, which should now come off easily. Rinse the strips briefly if they seem excessively salty and pat dry.
  4. Pound the pepper strips with the garlic in a mortar, or blend, working in the olive oil a little at a time until you have a thick, smooth, brick-red paste. Add the paprika if you want a deeper colour.
  5. Pack into clean jars, smooth the surface, and pour a layer of olive oil over the top to seal. Refrigerate.

Notes

Massa de pimentão is a seasoning rather than a sauce, and a spoonful goes a long way. Its classic use is to marinate pork: rub it over cubed pork with white wine, garlic, and bay for a few hours before frying, and you are most of the way to carne de porco à alentejana, which is finished with clams. It is equally good on chicken and lamb, stirred into bean stews and soups, spread on grilled bread, or worked into a marinade for the Portuguese grilled chicken that the world knows as piri-piri. The salting time is flexible, and some Alentejano households leave the peppers a week or more.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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