-
1
Set the oven to 200 °C. Place the clay cazuela over a medium flame. Film the base with olive oil and brown the pork ribs on all sides, then add the morcilla and chorizo and colour briefly. Remove and set aside. The fat in the cazuela should be fragrant and lightly coloured.
-
2
Add the chopped tomato to the same cazuela and cook it down until it darkens and the raw smell is gone. Add the cooked chickpeas and stir to coat. Return the pork ribs, morcilla, and chorizo to the cazuela.
-
3
Pour in the rice and distribute it in an even layer across the cazuela without mounding. Pour the hot cocido broth over the rice in a slow, steady stream — the liquid should just cover the rice and the solid ingredients. This step decides the dish: too little liquid and the rice dries out before cooking through; too much and the crust never forms. The surface should be level and the broth visibly trembling.
-
4
Lay the tomato slices across the surface of the rice in a single layer. Place the halved head of garlic, cut side up, in the centre of the cazuela.
-
5
Transfer the cazuela to the oven. Do not stir at any point. Bake at 200 °C for 25–30 minutes. Check at 25 minutes: the rice should have absorbed all the liquid, the tomato slices should be caramelised at their edges, and the exposed rice grains on the surface should be golden and dry — the socarrat. The cazuela will smell of toasted grain and sweet roasted garlic.
-
6
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 3–5 minutes before serving directly from the cazuela. The crust should release cleanly from the clay base when a spoon is pressed to the edge — a dry, audible scrape.