Escudella i carn d'olla
It is a unique dish, complete and healthy, and if well
cooked there is not another stew more gratifying in our
geography. The pasta added to make the soup might be
capellini spezziati, snail shells and even pasta with
letters shapes which made us deserve the affirmation
from Unamuno: "Catalonian people are so fond of culture
that they even get to eat the alphabet".

Ingredienti per 6 persone:

500 g of veal's back of the knee, 1 cabbage, ½ hen, 1 turnip, 150 g of streaky bacon, 1 carrot, 200 g of pork's ear
and snout, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 pork's trotter, 1 egg, 100 g of pork's lean meat, 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs, 250
of black sausage (made with blood), 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 bone from the leg of the pork, 1 small parsley's
branch, 1 veal's bone, salt, 250 g of chickpeas, pepper, 100 g of salt pork, soup pasta (capellini spezziati, snail
shells) and 250 g potatoes.
   
Preparazione:

The day before cooking it, put the chickpeas in to soak in lukewarm salty water. Carefully
wash the veal, the hen, the pork's trotter, the pork's ear and snout, the streaky bacon, and
the bones. Place all those ingredients into a pot with four liters of mineral water, and set it
on the fire. Skim it off once it begins to boil, and add the chickpeas.
Chop the pork's lean meat and the salt pork, mix them with the egg, the breadcrumbs, and
the parsley and garlic (previously minced). Season it with salt and pepper. Make a round or
oval dough, and flour it well.
Once the meat begins to soften, after one and a half hour boiling, add the black sausage,
the cabbage, previously washed and chopped, the carrot, the turnip, the peeled and cut
into medium pieces potatoes, and the meat dough. When everything is cooked remove the
broth, in which the pasta or rice can be boiled. People usually gives the broth a saffron
color.
This will be the main course. The other course will consist of the mixture of the chopped
meat and the vegetables placed in a symmetrical way, all presented on a salver.
It is better not to season it much because this dish is quite strong by itself. It is
recommended for winter.