Introduction

My favorite Cuban delicacy isn’t really the stuff of fine cookbooks. It was born not in a test kitchen but in that creative cauldron called the screw-up. “Raspita” is the crunchy toasted rice at the bottom of a pot that’s been left too long on the heat. After you scrape it up, raspita’s nutty crackle becomes the perfect foil to a bowl of soft steaming rice. Delicious and forgiving, raspita is a fine reminder that there is joy even in error and that sometimes an excess of competence can yield its own kind of hunger.