Salting the pork in advance and then letting it air-dry ensures juicy and tender meat that's perfectly seasoned and browns well.
According to the legend, late one night in the early 1960s a group of backpackers arrived unexpectedly at a hostel in Chilecito, a small town in the province of La Rioja that hugs Argentina’s central Andes. They were hungry and asked Ferrito, who was working the front desk, if there was anything for dinner. The fridge was full of disparate ingredients: A few pork chops, eggs, potatoes, leftover salsa portuguesa, Swiss chard cream sauce, and peas.
“My mother used to make costillas a la riojana when I was a kid,” says Alejo Benitez. “At the restaurant, we used a recipe by local chef Gastón Rivera as our base and I played around with the sauce using my go-to spices: black pepper, Spanish paprika, and crushed red pepper.”