Pipirrana
A summer salad from Andalusia, eaten in the heat in place of lunch. It is finely diced tomato, green pepper, cucumber and onion, dressed with good olive oil and sherry vinegar, with hard-boiled egg and tuna. The dressing is made the way they do it in Jaén, Andalusia's olive oil capital: garlic pounded with a hard-boiled egg yolk makes it creamy without mayonnaise. Jaén's own pipirrana is plainer, with no cucumber or onion. What matters is chilling for half an hour, so the vegetables release juice that mingles with the oil into a delicious liquid for dipping bread.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Eggs 10 min
- Dicing 15 min
- Chilling 30 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneHard-boil the eggs
Lower the eggs into boiling water and cook 10 minutes, then move to cold water. One yolk goes into the dressing, the rest is chopped over the salad.
Ingredients: 3 pcs eggs · 120 g tuna in olive oil · 12 pcs black olives
Dice the tomatoes finely
Cut the tomatoes into 5–7 mm dice, keeping the seeds and juice. In pipirrana everything is small, almost like a salsa — so a spoonful holds a little of every vegetable.
Ingredients: 4 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs green pepper · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs onion
Dice the pepper, cucumber and onion
Cut the pepper, peeled cucumber and onion into the same fine dice. Even size is the whole technique of this salad. The green Andalusian pepper is thin and faintly bitter — red would be too sweet.
Ingredients: 4 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs green pepper · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs onion
Everything the same fine dice — that is the technique.Pound garlic with the yolk
In a mortar pound the garlic with the salt to a paste, add one cooked yolk and keep pounding. This is the traditional Jaén way — the yolk thickens the dressing and softens the garlic.
Ingredients: 1 clove garlic · 80 ml olive oil · 2 tbsp sherry vinegar · 1 tsp salt · 1 pinch ground cumin
Garlic with yolk — creamy dressing without mayonnaise.Work in the oil and vinegar
Pour the oil into the mortar in a stream, pounding all the while, then add the sherry vinegar and a pinch of cumin. The dressing will be lightly emulsified and thick. Jaén's picual oil tastes peppery and green — here you really taste it.
Ingredients: 1 clove garlic · 80 ml olive oil · 2 tbsp sherry vinegar · 1 tsp salt · 1 pinch ground cumin
Combine vegetables and dressing
Pour the dressing over the vegetables and mix thoroughly. Taste — the tomatoes need salt to release their juice. Oil, vinegar and vegetable juice will form a liquid at the bottom of the bowl.
Ingredients: 4 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs green pepper · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs onion
Oil, vinegar and tomato juice — liquid for the bread.Chill for half an hour
Cover and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile the vegetables release juice and the flavours marry. Pipirrana is eaten cold — in the Andalusian heat that is the whole point.
Ingredients: 4 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs green pepper · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs onion
Add egg, tuna and olives
Before serving arrange chopped egg, chunks of tuna and olives on top. Serve with crusty bread — in Jaén the bread is dipped in the liquid at the bottom of the bowl, and that is the best part.
Ingredients: 3 pcs eggs · 120 g tuna in olive oil · 12 pcs black olives
Before you start
The best tomatoes
Pipirrana has only a few ingredients, so the tomatoes must be fully ripe, seasonal and sweet. Winter greenhouse tomatoes make a watery, tasteless salad — better to wait for August.
Without tuna
In Jaén pipirrana is often purely vegetable, with egg alone. Tuna makes it a lunch. It is also excellent beside grilled fish or fried sardines.
Keeps one day
Pipirrana keeps a day in the fridge, but the vegetables soften and release more and more juice. Add egg and tuna just before serving, and ideally eat it the day it is made.
