Gurullos — Spain

Gurullos are tiny, irregular grains of pasta rolled by hand from flour, water and a little salt, then cooked directly in a seasoned broth rather than boiled separately. The pasta swells as it cooks, thickening the liquid around it into a stew-like dish rather than a clear soup. The dish is reported from inland Andalusia, particularly the province of Jaén, where it has long been cooked in farmhouses using whatever meat was on hand, most often rabbit, partridge or chicken, alongside beans or greens depending on the season. Preparation starts with browning the meat in olive oil with garlic, onion and a sweet or hot paprika, then covering it with water or broth and simmering until tender. The hand-rolled pasta grains are stirred in toward the end of cooking and left to swell in the broth, absorbing its flavor while releasing enough starch to thicken it lightly. Compared with other Spanish wheat-and-broth dishes such as migas or fideuà, gurullos are defined by the shape and hand-rolling of the pasta itself and by cooking it directly in the meat broth rather than frying it first, which gives the dish its characteristic thick, almost porridge-like consistency.