El Matrimonio
El Matrimonio·(el mah-tree-moh-nee-oh)
Chapter 2: Cold Tapas
A poetic union of the exact same Cantabrian catch, separated at birth by centuries-old preservation techniques. One fish is buried in salt to become a dark, savory umami bomb of an anchoa; the other is bathed in vinegar to emerge as a bright, fleshy boquerón. Reunited on a plate in the bustling tapas bars of Madrid, they are laid over a blistered, still-warm green pepper. This stark temperature contrast—the crunch of hot bread, the sweet warmth of the pepper, and the cool, briny fish—is exactly what makes a restaurant bite transcendent. Have everything prepped, flash the peppers in a smoking pan as your guests arrive, and serve immediately.
Before you start
Bring the fish to room temperature.
Pull the anchoas and boquerones from the fridge twenty minutes before serving to wake up their preserving oils; cold mutes their flavor.
Prep your mise en place.
Whisk the extra-virgin olive oil and minced parsley together in a small bowl so you aren't scrambling when the heat is on.
Ingredients
- premium Spanish anchoas in olive oil2 oz
- boquerones en vinagre4 oz
- Italian green frying peppers2 med
- baguette1 med
- garlic1 large clove
- extra-virgin olive oil3 tbsp
- fresh flat-leaf parsley1 tbsp
- lemon1 small
Method
- 01
Blister the peppers in a hot skillet.
Get a pan ripping hot over medium-high heat with a splash of oil, dropping the green pepper strips in to blister rapidly and soften for about three minutes per side.
- 02
Toast the bread.
Simultaneously throw the bread slices under the broiler or onto a hot plancha until golden and crunchy.
- 03
Assemble the tapas quickly to preserve the heat.
Rub the hot, abrasive surface of the toast lightly with the cut side of the raw garlic, lay down a warm strip of pepper, and immediately drape one dark anchoa and one white boquerón side-by-side on top.
- 04
Garnish and serve immediately.
Drizzle lightly with the parsley-infused oil, add a single microscopic shave of lemon zest to wake up the palate, and get it to the table while the toast is still hot.
Notes
Respect the fish.
You cannot substitute cheap, excessively salty supermarket pizza anchovies here. Premium Spanish anchoas del Cantábrico are hand-filleted, meaty, and sweet, and the entire dish falls apart without them.
The temperature contrast is the point.
Do not plate this ten minutes before your guests sit down. The magic of the bite relies entirely on the interplay between the hot, crunchy bread, the warm pepper, and the cool fish.
Pepper substitutions.
If you cannot find Italian frying peppers, Anaheim peppers work perfectly. You can also blister whole shishito or Padrón peppers, remove the stems, and lay them flat on the bread in a pinch.