Santa Pau beans with butifarra pork tripe sausage

This is one of the most characteristic dishes of the La Garrotxa area. Its main ingredient is fesols--a sort of haricot bean that has an especially smooth texture when grown locally because of the volcanic substrate in the soil. Almost all the local restaurants offer a recipe including fesols. Cal Sastre is a pleasant restaurant in Santa Pau in which Margarita Colldecarrera bases her cooking on a wise blend of tradition and innovation. It was she who had the idea of replacing the traditional butifarra pork sausage with a special sausage made with pork tripe, which, after boiling in the pot with the other sausages, takes on a very special flavor.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

21 oz haricot beans

14 oz butifarra pork tripe sausage

Oil and salt

Preparation:

Leave the beans to soak overnight. Drain and wash two or three times with clean water. Place in a pan with plenty of water and bring to a boil. The secret of perfect beans is to boil them first over a very high heat for about 10 minutes, then to bring down the temperature and leave to cook for about 75 minutes, ensuring that they continue to boil gently at all times. Altogether, they should boil for about 1 hour 30 minutes. The salt is added at the end and, if extra water is required, it must be hot. Once they are cooked, drain and set aside.

Heat a little olive oil in a frying-pan. Add the butifarra in pieces. Using a fork, stir continuously with a circular movement until it breaks up. When it is all broken into small pieces, add the beans and stir until the two ingredients are well mixed but without allowing them to dry up.

Selected by Sonia Ortega
Recipe courtesy of Spain GourmeTour magazine.