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Toro's lengua con lentejas y salsa verde

On the other hand, cows are not the most exhilarating denizens of the farmyard. Aside from swatting the occasional fly, often their only activity is eating. As a result, cows’ tongues get a pretty hefty workout, yielding highly flavorful but extraordinarily tough protein. But of all the melt-in-your-mouth dishes in the city, Toro’s lengua con lentejas y salsa verde may well be the meltingest. So how does this transformation take place?

After getting the corned-beef treatment (they’re pickled in brine), the tongues are packed in a wet cure of salt, onion, herbs, and other aromatics and allowed to rest for a minimum of 12 hours to form a strong flavor base for the onslaught to come. Next day: a plunge into a vat of rendered flavored duck fat, in which they slowly cook à la duck confit for several hours at a hot-bath temperature. Once the exterior skin starts to loosen up, it’s carefully exfoliated to reveal the bright pink meat underneath — meaning it’s probably had a better spa treatment than you ever will. After chilling (the hot tongue is so tender it’ll fall apart at the slightest touch of a knife), it’s sliced thick before getting a final simmer in vegetable stock.

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The complex meaty, vegetal, briny, duck-fatty flavors are interesting enough on their own, but paired with a sweet-tart herbal salsa verde and tender-yet-intact lentils spiked with sherry vinegar, they become something worth wrapping your tongue around again and again.

Available for $11 at Toro, 1704 Washington Street, in Boston. Call 617.536.4300.

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