Casa Pacheco Restaurant: reverence to the Iberian, spoon dishes and a game with old wines

With very clear ideas, the cook Cristina Martín and the young Sarita Cámara lend soul to the dishes at Casa Pacheco, an old restaurant at the foot of the CL 512 highway, in the town of Vecinos, in the Campo de Salamanca region. .

The sommelier Silvia Gaspar is in charge of the cellar and the room, and her passion for wine is contagious, while José Antonio Benito, the third generation of this family business that dates back to 1916, oversees relations with diners.

Casa Pacheco, with a rustic and comfortable setting, has become a destination for connoisseurs rather than a stopover on the route from Salamanca to La Alberca and the Sierra de Francia.

His letter, succinct, conscientiously meditated, breathes roots and respect for the flavors of the land.

In one section, the Iberian pork and the prestige of the chacinas of Guijuelo Bajo, the banner of Joselito, are revered;

in two others space is given to spoon dishes and meat stews;

and in the axis of the letter they even dare with a group of moderately creative recipes, which they mistakenly describe as avant-garde.

Among them their unique croquettes, which they make from

, vintage 2014. Or the salad, highly recommended, which contains chunks of lobster, tuna belly and cubes of acorn-fed ham.

They include in the list the Iberian sausage tartare cut with a knife with marinated egg yolk, very successful, and even the stew in which they mix beef and Iberian offal with the traditional tripe recipe.

In all cases, a kitchen with roots where traditional flavors are interpreted with current criteria.

The spoon offers antagonistic results: the stew of brown lentils from La Armuña with Iberian pork jowls and chorizo ​​is memorable, and the revolconas potatoes turned into cream, with bacon and sausage, a refinement that denatures them, are much less successful.

'Vintage' Iberian ham croquette, from Casa Pacheco.

Beyond the fish of the day, always off the menu, some meat specialties marked by the intensity of their flavors are worthwhile: the aged and roasted venison loin is splendid, and the pickled Iberian pork with lettuce heart is just right.

Nor are its desserts, traditional but unique (bacon with goose eggs; cheese cake; cream flan), far from that homely and familiar spirit that presides over the menu.

Cellar of the restaurant Casa Pacheco, in the town of Vecinos (Salamanca).

With the complicity of the sommelier Silvia Gaspar, some regulars dare to play the game of old wines.

They blindly select one of the bottles that sleep dusty on one of the shelves of the cellar with indefinite years of rest, which the house rates at an average price of 40 euros as a corkage.

If the wine is not in good condition, the play can be repeated.

Sometimes true treasures are discovered for a more than moderate price.

pacheco house

• Address:

  Jose Antonio street, 12. Neighbors (Salamanca).

• Telephone

  : 923 38 21 69.

• Web

  : restaurantecasapacheco.com.

• Closed

  every night and Tuesday.

• Price:

  between 50 and 70 euros per person.

  Iberian ham croquettes, 3.50 euros each;

  salad with lobster and belly, 22 euros;

  brown lentils with jowls and chorizo, 12 euros;

  pickled Iberian prey, 25 euros;

  bacon made from goose eggs, 6.50 euros.

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