Its main dishes rely on four basic sauces: sofrito, samfaina, picada and ali-oli, and of the four, special mention must be made of the second, because it is strictly Catalan and used with a wide variety of dishess. It is a half-cooked mixture of tomato, pepper and aubergine. Sofrito, on the other hand, is rather widespread in Spanish cooking. It is a fried sauce made with garlic, onion, tomato and parsley. Picada has the special Catalan touch and is added to the simplest dishes so that they never become monotonous routine. It contains garlic, parsley, toasted almonds and chopped pine seeds. Ali-oli is an admirable dressing which probably dates from the times of the Romans and is made with olive oil and garlic, which are mixed very patiently in a mortar until they turn into a creamy paste which is ideal for meat and fish.
 Bread with tomato and ham |
The traveller will discover a variety of rice dishes in Catalonia, as well as
meat dishes, particularly poultry, and the famous Girona veal; not to mention
rock fish, which is prepared very tastily and with a lot of imagination. The
visitor will also find a surprisingly rich collection of sausages, including butifarra
which is roasted or fried with mongetes - white beans - to make a modest
but tasty dish, one of the most typical in the land. Vic is the capital of
sausages, especially of salchichón and the typical fuet. And
accommpanying this dish is another very traditional treat: bread with tomato in
a Catalan version, ie, rubbing the tomato into the bread and adding olive oil
and salt. A slice of ham, an omelette or whatever else is available may be put
on top.
The wines in the area are also magnificent, and worthy of special mention are
those of El Priorato, which are very special, thick and mild reds not
easily found outside Catalonia. El porrón or glass jug is also very
popular in Catalonia: the wine is poured from the glass jug with the spout held
high. More common is the leather wineskin, which is equally appropriate for the
liquid, but drinking from the porrón seems to give the wine a different
taste.
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Girona |
In the chapter about fish, Girona, with the rest of the Costa Brava, stands out among all the Catalan areas for its magnificent suquets, a fishermen's dish which contains different rock fish boiled in a thick broth and an equally thick sofrito. The thick, magnificent angler soup must also be mentioned, as well as the lobster which is the best in the region and is prepared with roasted almonds and garlic and then served with ali-oli...
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Barcelona |
 White beans with "butifarra" a Catalan sausage |
Of the most important dishes special mention should be made of the escudella i carn d'olla, which was eaten almost daily until the thirties. Today it can hardly be found in the local restaurants. However, it is still number one of the typical Catalan dishes. Escudella is the Catalan version of the chickpea stew called cocido. It is based on the same principle of cooking meat and vegetables together. There are two separate courses, that is, two dishes: one, a soup with small noodles and rice, and then meat, served with the vegetables. It does not include chorizo or morcilla like other Spanish stews, but the white and black butifarra, and the famous pilota, a ball made of meat, parsley, bread crumbs and egg. This stew probably has more ingredients than any other stew in the whole country: beef, hen, bacon, pig's ear, pig's trotters and lean pork, white and black butifarra, ham bone, marrow bone, chickpeas, beans, potatoes, cauliflower, egg, turnip, carrot, garlic, flour, pepper, cinnamon and parsley.
The people of Barcelona have also invented tasty noodles, ie, fideos a la cazuela, one of the most popular dishes of the region. As is customary in this area, the dish includes an ample selection of spare ribs, sausages, butifarra, ham and bacon as well as sofrito which, as usual, consists of onion, pepper and tomato.
Together with the escudella and butifarra with beans, which we mentioned in the introduction, the third most typical Catalan stew is the one with broad beans (habas a la catalana). It is prepared with a lot of herbs and spices (thyme, rosemary, mint, cinnamon and bay leaf), broad beans which are the favourite vegetable in the area, and butifarra.
As for desserts, Catalan cream is excellent. It resembles custard and is covered with a layer of caramel. However, the most traditional sweets are the ones prepared all through the year for the different holidays, such as pa de pessic, las coques de la noche de San Juan, los panellets of almond and pine seeds in the month of November... and at any time of the year, el mel i mató with requesón, a soft, white cheese.
Sant Sadorni d'Anoia is the production centre of the famous cavas, the sparkling wines.
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Lleida |
 Snails |
In this region rice dishes are frequently prepared with rabbit, cod and pork. They are always served with a lot of broth. The most typical sausages of the region are la girella and los xolis.
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Tarragona |
 Rice with a fish and shellfish broth |
However, most important of the Tarragona cuisine are the rice dishes and a really splendid sauce. Among the rice dishes, el rossejat is a particularly popular one all along the East Coast and is especially typical of fishermen. Then there is black rice with sepia and el arroz abanda, the most extraordinary of all the rice dishes in the Spanish cuisine. However, it should only be eaten in absolutely reliable places. And in Tarragona, by way of Cambrils, the best are served without any doubt.
 Red pepper romesco from Sitges |
Arroz abanda is a rice dish meant for experts because it is served by itself, or, if one wants, together with the fish with which it was boiled. The fish and seafood must be of the best queality and the greatest possiblle variety: grouper, angler, conger, prawns, lobster and squid. The complete dish consists of a large amount of rice, which has been boiled with all the fish, and another dish of fish which is served with ali-oli or romesco.
Romesco is very popular all along the Mediterranean coast and has become part of the international cuisine. Experts do not agree on the ideal formula nor its variations. Some say olive oil, red pepper and bread are enough, while others add garlic, almonds, cognac, vinegar, and then cook it all. Whatever the case, romesco is the name of a special red pepper used in its preparation, and together with ali-oli it is the most typical of the Mediterranean sauces.The Priorat wines are the product of the Tarragona vineyards. They are excellent reds, some with 14 degrees and others with up to 20 degrees.
