Bocadillo de Salchichón

Bocadillo de salchichón is a cold cured-sausage sandwich built around salchichón, the Spanish large-diameter dry-cured sausage seasoned with peppercorns, nutmeg and sometimes wine. The sausage is sliced thin and layered in a length of barra de pan, often with no more than a thread of olive oil or a few shards of Manchego to set off the fat.

Salchichón is the Iberian cousin of Italian salame: a pork sausage cold-fermented, stuffed into natural casing, and dry-cured for weeks to months. Spanish regions have distinct versions — Salamanca's salchichón de Guijuelo, León's, Valladolid's — each with its own pepper profile. When folded into a baguette and pressed flat, the sausage slowly releases its peppery fat into the bread.

It is a fixture of Castilla y León and La Rioja tabernas and is the standard tapa sandwich served with a glass of Ribera del Duero or Rioja at bars in Salamanca, Valladolid, Logroño and Burgos. In Castilian towns it is often eaten mid-morning with a vermú or as a merienda snack.