Joana here - Farah Trading Co's official wine and food writer based in Leiria, Portugal! Today's Portuguese recipe is a classic Petisco!
What is a Petisco? Let me explain .... There are times we eat to fuel our bodies and then there are times we eat to fulfill our souls, our friendships and our relationships. For those times you want more than a simple meal. In Portugal we have the perfect dishes for that -- we called them “petiscos”.
“Petiscos” are basically delicious plates of traditional food cooked to share between family and friends. It’s something you eat slowly, around a table and amidst great conversations and delicious wine (or beers, to be fair!).
Petiscos go with the Portuguese like tapas go with the Spanish and I’ll be sharing some classics with you throughout the next few months.
This week, I’m starting with one of my personal favorites: scrambled eggs with asparagus and chorizo as this is something we cook a lot at home for us and our friends. Sometimes with choriço, sometimes with “alheira”; it varies on what we have lying around in the fridge, really.
The petisco recipe is as easy as it sounds. The flavor, color and character of the dish comes mainly from the choriço so make sure to pick a meaty one.
Start prepping by cutting the choriço and the asparagus into tiny bite size pieces and, on a bowl, firmly whisking those eggs. Put a pan on high heat, add some olive oil and the chorizo pieces to start rendering the fat and crisp up the meat pieces. Once this is going, add the asparagus and let them get soft and start to brown a little.
Once you hit that point, lower the heat to a medium and add the eggs. Season generously with pepper and some salt, fold the eggs gently for a few seconds and remove them from the heat as the residual heat from the pan will cook it through just right.
You’re done. Oh! And I almost forgot to mention – never serve “petiscos” without plenty of bread to make sure you get all those juicy flavors left on the platter. Then, in case you’re wondering, I would pair this with a light, crisp fun rosé, like Quinta do Tedo's!
Cheers, Joana
