Basque · Hegoalde (Spain) · main

Marmitako

Name: Marmitako
Prep time: 1 h 5 min
Total time: 2 h 6 min
Cuisine: Basque · Hegoalde (Spain)
Ingredients: tuna — 800 g; potatoes — 1000 g; onions — 400 g; sweet green pepper — 120 g; garlic — 12 g; dried choricero peppers — 20 g; extra virgin olive oil — 92 g; fish stock — 1200 g; txakoli — 100 g; spanish smoked paprika — 3 g; dried guindilla chile — 2 g; flat-leaf parsley — 8 g; salt — 8 g

Marmitako reads umami 6.0, marine & briny 4.4 and salinity 4.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Basque · Hegoalde (Spain) main, about 2 hr 6 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 6.9 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 3.8 / 10
Sour & Bright — 0.8 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 3.2 / 10
Rich & Fat — 3.9 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 4.4 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.0 · Marine & Briny 4.4 · Salinity 4.1 · Allium 4.0 · Richness 3.8 · Sweetness 3.3 · Smoke 2.7 · Earthy 1.9 · Herbaceous 1.8 · Fruity 1.8 · Warm Spice 1.5 · Bitterness 1.4 · Floral 0.7 · Sourness 0.7 · Heat 0.6 · Nutty 0.6 · Citrus 0.5

What's in it (13)

tuna — 800 g
potatoes — 1000 g
onions — 400 g
sweet green pepper — 120 g
garlic — 12 g
dried choricero peppers — 20 g
extra virgin olive oil — 92 g
fish stock — 1200 g
txakoli — 100 g
spanish smoked paprika — 3 g
dried guindilla chile — 2 g
flat-leaf parsley — 8 g
salt — 8 g

Time & effort: about 2 hr 6 min (1 hr 5 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 56.7 kcal, 6.5 g protein, 1.4 g fat, 4.6 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

This is a tuna boat's one-pot dinner, named for the marmita it was cooked in. Use bonito del norte — the pale, fine-grained albacore landed off the Basque coast in summer. Bluefin is wrong here and yellowfin is too lean.
Soak the choricero peppers in hot water for 1 hour, then open them and scrape the pulp from the skin with a knife. Discard the skins.
Warm the oil in a wide heavy pot over low heat and sweat the onion and green pepper with a pinch of salt for 20 minutes, until soft and sweet with no colour. Add the garlic and the guindilla and cook 2 minutes more. Pull the pot off the heat, stir in the pimentón, and count one minute — off the heat, because pimentón burns in seconds and turns acrid.
Now crack the potatoes rather than cutting them: push the knife a third of the way in and lever the piece off so it tears. The ragged faces release starch and are what thickens the broth. You want pieces about 4 cm.
Return the pot to the heat, add the wine and let it bubble for 3 minutes. Add the potatoes, the choricero pulp and the hot stock, bring to a simmer and cook uncovered for 25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the broth has gone slightly cloudy and thick.
Taste for salt now, while the pot is still on the heat, because you will not stir it again. Turn the heat off completely, lay the bonito cubes on the surface, put the lid on and leave 5 minutes. The residual heat cooks them through to just barely opaque. Bonito that boils turns to sawdust — this off-heat finish is the difference between a good marmitako and a dry one. Scatter the parsley and serve straight away.
Substitutions: another dry white wine can stand in for the txakoli.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Manhattan-Style Tomato Clam Chowder — American
Shrimp Etouffee — Cajun/Creole · Cajun
One-Pot Jambalaya — Cajun/Creole · Cajun
Corn and Shrimp Chowder — American
Cajun Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo — Cajun/Creole

Keep reading: what umami, marine & briny, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

See how this dish fits your palate — take the short taste test →

Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.