There are a many signature foods in Spain. Most are well known, like the Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish Omelet) , Paella, Jamón Ibérico (Iberian Ham), or Wine…wait, wine isn’t food, but it might as well be. There are many, however, that you don’t hear about until you are living here.  One of these tasty delights is Migas.

What are they? And why are they worth writing about?

Migas, [pronounced Mee-guhs] are essentially day-old, or better said, weeks-old bread crumbs sauteed in olive oil and garlic, garnished with a fried red pepper. This version is the most basic and probably the most common if you stop for some in a high-capacity bar in a city. Migas is your classic poor man’s breakfast. It’s cheap, easy, uses basic household ingredients, and recycles the old bread most people would throw away. Developed by poor farmers in agricultural strong-holds like Extremadura, it is designed to nourish and fill a hard working farmer until it’s time to turn in for lunch. If you eat even just one plate and don’t plan on doing any laborious activities, don’t think about eating lunch. Impossible. I’m not a person who is afraid of unbuttoning her pants in order to eat more but, yesterday, at around 11:00 am I ate HALF a plate of Migas, yes half, and wasn’t hungry until 7:30PM.

Apart from being inexpensive and filling, one of the best things about Migas is the surprise it brings wherever you go. You can order Migas in one bar, cross the street and order them again and you’ll be greeted with a distinct signature plate of fancy bread crumbs. While they are a promised stomach filler where ever you are, there really is nothing better than a Migas made in the kitchen of a pueblo. That basic version I described above is blasphemy to the creators of authentic Migas. In fact, the best plate of Migas I’ve ever had was in a tiny village of about 30 people in the north of Caceres, called Roman Gordo. These Migas put the A in authentic and B in belly bursting.

The steps of these Migas are as followed:

Ingredients:

Day old or Stale Bread, Olive Oil, Garlic, Red and Green pepper, Bacon, Chorizo, Blood Sausage,

1. Slice day old French bread into small pieces and crumble onto an oven pan. Lightly spray with water, cover, and let sit overnight.

2. In a hearty amount of Olive Oil, fry green and red peppers until they’re deliciously wrinkled. Remove them from the pan and put them aside.

3. In the same pan, fry Chorizo, Panceta (a thick variety of Bacon), and Murcilla (blood sausage). Leave those rich juices behind, and put the meat aside aside.

4. About halfway through the process of frying of the meats, you can add full garlic cloves to the mix (the amount of course, depends on how many people you are cooking for… typically though, it’s nice to have at least two cloves on each plate, however, it’s important not to overpower the mixture with garlic).

5. When the garlic is toasted add in the bread. Now, you’ll need a mashing tool to mash up the bread into the Migas, the balled bread crumbs. (This part is essential, as the consistency is key).

6. Fry up an egg. Make sure you keep it over-easy, so the yolk is nice and runny.

7. When the bread crumbs are good and mashed, serve them on a plate and garnish with the Chorizo, Panceta, Morcilla, Peppers and Fried egg.

8. Dig in!

Note: You can keep it simple above, or do this however you want really, adding and subtracting ingredients from above.

Dig in is exactly what I did with these LOADED Migas complete with the above AND Ribs:

As a delicious and authentic taste of Spain, writing about Migas feels worth it to me. Now, you tell me, was it worth reading about Migas? Share you thoughts and comments below 🙂