Courgette, pepper, onion and tomato cooked down slowly in olive oil until they collapse into a soft, sweet mass, then crowned with a fried egg. Eaten with bread and nothing else.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Pisto is the Spanish answer to ratatouille and is cooked all over the country, but Córdoba's version is closely tied to one address: Taberna San Miguel on Plaza de San Miguel has been nicknamed Casa El Pisto since long before it was official, and the taberna has been open since 1880. The Córdoba style is drier than the Manchego version, cooked down until almost no liquid is left, and the egg is fried separately and set on top rather than stirred through. It works as a tapa, a ración or a whole lunch depending on how many eggs land on it.
Common allergens: Egg
Tip from the editors. Cook it down further than feels right. Watery pisto is the single most common fault and it cannot be rescued later.
Casa El Pisto has fed Plaza de San Miguel in Córdoba since 1880, a bullfighting taberna where a plate of pisto with a fried egg costs almost nothing.
Try: Pisto casero con huevo
Order: Pisto casero con huevo, then the ensaladilla rusa.
Tip: The operator publishes lunchtime hours only, so treat this as a midday stop rather than dinner.
Casa Bravo works the Puerta de Almodóvar gate in Córdoba from a patio retiled in 1914, pouring wine from its own bodega with the kitchen open all day.
Signature drink: Wines from the house bodega
Food: Cordobés tapas, daily menu, salmorejo
Order: The salmorejo, then whatever is on the daily menu board.
Tip: The kitchen runs continuously from midday, which is unusual here and useful in the dead afternoon hours.
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