Still Discovering Spain...

Across Spain, but particularly in Catalonia, meals often include a simple dish of just four ingredients—bread, oil, salt, tomatoes. To prepare pan con tomate or, in Catalan, pa amb tomàquet, you grate garlic along the rough surface of a piece of slightly toasted bread, drizzle on some extra virgin olive oil, and then rub half a tomato over the bread. The fruit’s flesh soaks into the bread, creating a simple but delicious treat.

In this recipe, the tomato is the crucial ingredient. Pa amb tomàquet should be made with particular tomatoes called tomaquets de penjar, or hanging tomatoes, a variety that, when strung properly into bunches, can keep fresh for up to six months after being harvested. Which means that tomato season (and pan con tomate season) lasts long beyond summer: Harvest these tomatoes in September, and you can still eat fresh tomatoes in March.

Hanging tomatoes have special qualities that make them ideal for both preservation and spreading on toast. They’re extra juicy, so much so that they make poor slicing tomatoes. They also have thick skin, which helps protect the interior over those long months. If you slice one open and squeeze, the liquid easily spreads over bread. The hanging tomatoes grown in Alcalà de Xivert are particularly well known, and the area’s growers’ association protects and markets this particular tomato variety.

To survive for months, hanging tomatoes have to be stored in a special way. After the harvest, farmers sew them into clusters of 15 to 30 tomatoes. Ideally, no tomato should touch any other; if they’re packed too tightly, they can rot. This method isn’t perfect, but it’s successful enough to ensure access to fresh, juicy tomatoes and perfect pan con tomate almost year round.

Spanish gastronomy is one of the most appreciated in Europe and in the world. Its traditional cuisine is made up of many other cuisines and each one of them was influenced by the climate, history and customs of each community.

In 2022, Spanish cuisine obtained third place in the ranking of the Taste Atlas gastronomic guide. This online culinary encyclopedia prepares its own ranking every year thanks to the votes of its users, which evaluates foods, ingredients and drinks.

The Spanish gastronomic offer was only surpassed by Italian and Greek food. And it is followed by food from Japan, India and Mexico.

The ranking of world cuisines prepared by Taste Atlas, with the votes of the audience for ingredients, dishes and drinks, produced a list of the best foods in Spain.

The best-rated is the 100% acorn-fed Iberian ham, followed by the cured Manchego. Other dishes that received top mentions are:

Paella

Widely acclaimed as the most popular Spanish dish, paella is a one-pot speciality. Paella has humble origins, probably originating around the Albufera lagoon, an area known for its rice fields and wildlife, where it was made with locally sourced ingredients. Another crucial element is the socarrat, the crunchy bottom layer, and the obligatory final touch of each paella. Because paella is prepared in a wide, shallow pan, the rice cooks evenly in a thin layer, allowing the grains to caramelize and crisp up underneath. The socarrat is such an essential element that it is even one of the categories of the Valencian paella contest. Always served in the pan, this Spanish classic can be found throughout the country, in endless combinations.

Sangria

Sangria is a fruity Spanish cocktail made with red wine and chopped fruits such as pears, peaches, berries, apples, nectarines, or pineapple. The drink is often combined with sugar, orange juice, sparkling water, and even brandy. The ancestor of bloodletting is believed to be hippocras, a drink made with wine, sugar, and spices.

'Hippocras' was prepared by the early Greeks and Romans, who used alcohol to make the drink drinkable, as the water was usually full of bacteria and unsafe to drink. The name Sangría means bleeding in Spanish, referring to the red wine used in the preparation process.

Today, European law states that authentic sangria must be made in Spain or Portugal, and must contain less than 12% alcohol by volume. Although sangria is commonly served in bars and restaurants, where it is served in tall glasses and garnished with a slice of orange, especially in summer, the best versions are said to be made at home.

Chorizo

Chorizo is a Spanish sausage consisting of fatty, minced pork that is seasoned with paprika and sometimes garlic. The combination of these ingredients is stuffed into a natural skin casing. Chorizo is characterized by its red colour, due to the use of special paprika, which is the key ingredient that differentiates Spanish chorizo from other similar sausages.

It has a unique, abundant and sometimes spicy flavour. There are also different versions of chorizo in countries like Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Panama, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay. Some claim that chorizo has its origins in Catalan xoriço, while others say that it has roots in black pudding.

Churros

Long, crisp, crunchy, and intensely fragrant, churros consist of a yeast dough deep-fried and encrusted with sugar.

Originally invented by Spanish shepherds who could easily cook them in a skillet over an open fire, today these unusually shaped sugar-dusted twists are most commonly eaten in Spain and Latin America as a hot breakfast, accompanied by a strong cup of coffee or a cup of thick hot chocolate.

Its characteristic shape is achieved by pressing the dough through plastic tubes so that it comes out the other side in fine, fluted strings. Although churros are a Madrid speciality, those found in Seville are often praised for their lighter, more delicate texture. One of the best options to enjoy delicious churros in Spain is the Chocolatería San Ginés, located at Pasadizo de San Ginés, 5, it is a classic of Madrid culture. It has been operating since 1894 and is possibly one of the most international Spanish churrerías due to its locations in Shanghai, China and Colombia. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Cocido

Cocido is a traditional Spanish stew with a wide range of regional varieties. It is also prepared and enjoyed in Portugal (cozido) and Brazil. The stew is made with a combination of various meats (or sometimes seafood) such as chicken, beef and pork along with cured and dried sausages, and vegetables such as carrots, chickpeas, potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. Many other ingredients such as eggs can also be added to the stew to enrich its flavours and textures.

Bocodillos

The famous Bocadillos or bocatas also hit the top scores! Spanish 'sandwiches' made with Spanish-style baguettes known as 'barra de pan', as opposed to regular sandwiches which are made with modern white bread, known as pan de molde in Spain. The most common fillings for sandwiches include meat, cheese, tuna, tortillas, ham, or chorizo.

These sandwiches can be found everywhere from bars and taverns to roadside eateries, but chances are you won't find one on a restaurant menu.

Black garlic is essentially fermented garlic which is achieved completely naturally without the use of any preservatives or other chemical additives.

The garlic is ripened for a long time in strictly controlled temperature and humidity conditions, as a result of which the cloves become darker and darker until they turn completely black.

Black garlic is not only a form of garlic but it has its own very special taste, sweet with nuances of balm and liquorice, similar to the flavour "umami", which in Japanese means "pleasant savoury taste", and is one of the five basic tastes together with sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

The word was originally coined by Professor Kikuna Ikeda and derives from a combination of the terms umai "delicious" and mi "taste".

As a culinary ingredient black garlic can be used in a wide range of ways, just like normal garlic, but its soft and easy-to-use texture also makes it a delicious, healthy snack on its own. Most importantly, however, it has outstanding nutritional benefits.

Black garlic has five times more antioxidant potential than normal raw garlic and contains between five and seven times the quantity of polyphenols. This is because during the lengthy ripening process, the pungent garlic compounds are naturally converted into health-giving phenolic compounds, among which are bioactive organic sulphur compounds such as S-allylcystein and S-allylmercaptocystein, which have anti-oxidative effects. In addition, black garlic contains tetra-hydro-beta-carboline derivates, which exert anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic activity, a property also found in other fermented products such as wine and beer. So there you have it, the next superfood and the most famous variety in Spain are made with purple garlic from Las Pedroñeras.

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