Pimientos del Piquillo Rellenos

The pepper is the Pimiento del Piquillo de Lodosa, grown around the town of Lodosa and seven neighbouring municipalities on the Navarrese bank of the Ebro. It earned a Spanish denomination of origin in 1987 and full European Protected Designation of Origin status in 1996. The 'piquillo' (little beak) is roasted over wood, peeled and hand-packed without water, which concentrates a sweet, faintly smoky flesh with no heat. Stuffing the peeled peppers — most famously with the salt cod of the Basque-Navarrese tradition — is the regional showpiece.

The pepper itself is silky and thin-walled, sweet with a whisper of char from the fire. Cut into a cod-stuffed one and the filling is soft and savoury, faintly salty from the fish. The almond-and-piquillo sauce is velvety and brick-orange, sweeter than a tomato sauce and slightly nutty. Eaten warm, the whole thing is gentle — no chilli heat at any point, despite the deep red colour.

Wood-roasting is what makes the piquillo work: the dry heat blisters the skin so it peels cleanly and caramelises the pepper's sugars without stewing it, so the flesh stays intact enough to hold a filling. The sauce is bound two ways at once — fried onion supplies sweetness and body, while ground almonds act as a thickener in the manner of a Spanish picada, giving a smooth, slightly grainy emulsion of oil, pepper purée and stock that needs no flour. Cod filling is flaked from desalted salt cod rather than fresh fish, so it keeps a firm, savoury bite.