Gypsy Pot

The olla is a typical potaje, which is to say a soupy legume stew served as a first course or a main dish for lunch. In some versions wheat berries are added to the pot. Other renditions include white beans, Swiss chard, potatoes, or eggplant. This olla, so representative of the vegetable cooking of Murcia and Alicante, is called gitana—gypsy—because of its seemingly anarchic roster of ingredients. True, the mixture of legumes and pears is a little unusual, but i