Migas extremeñas

The story

Migas, fried bread crumbs, were for centuries the everyday food of Iberian shepherds. Herders carried bread in their sheepskin jackets, called zamarras, and when it went hard they crumbled it, dampened it and fried it with whatever they had on hand, food that kept them going on long walks with the flocks. Many of them were transhumant, walking their animals between summer and winter pastures. The novelist Emilia Pardo Bazán called migas an entirely primitive, Iberian dish, and the cook Francisco Martínez Montiño recorded a version as migas de gato in 1617. The dish has long since moved beyond the shepherds, and today migas are made in Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia and Aragón; in Extremadura they are cooked in almost every household. In La Vera, home of smoked pimentón de la Vera, cooks add that paprika, peppers, crisp pork belly called torreznos, chorizo and often potatoes. Elsewhere in Spain migas may carry sardines, salt cod, olives or milk, and grapes are a common side in season. Serve them straight from the pan with fried eggs and a green salad, and use a dense country loaf at least a day old.