The atlas · A cuisine · Asturias — the green mountains and coast of northern Spain, on the Bay of Biscay

Asturian

Also Cocina asturiana, Asturias
One of Spanish cooking's regional kitchens · all 7 side by side

A kitchen of rain and mountains: big white beans stewed with smoked sausage, milk and blue cheese, fish from the Cantabrian Sea, and cider poured from a height.

Where it comes from

Asturias is mountains running down to the sea, wet and green, and it cooks like a place of dairy farmers and fishermen: rich milk and butter, dozens of cheeses — Cabrales the best known — beans, maize, apples, and fish landed along the coast.

It's cider country. Apples have been pressed here for centuries, and in the sidrerías the cider is poured from high above the head into a wide glass, a little at a time, so it froths and wakes up. It's drunk at once, and it goes into the cooking too.

Its dishes are hearty and generous — the fabada above all, and more lately the cachopo — made for cold, damp winters and long lunches.

Where in it

  1. Oviedo and GijónThe inland capital and the port on the coast, both full of sidrerías, where fabada, cachopo and chorizo in cider fill the tables.Fabada asturianaCachopoChorizo a la sidra
  2. Cabrales and the Picos de EuropaHigh limestone peaks where Cabrales, a strong blue cheese of cows', sheep's and goats' milk, ripens in cold, damp caves.
  3. Luarca and the western coastFishing ports on steep cliffs, where monkfish, hake and clams come in fresh and are fried, stewed with beans or cooked in cider.Pixín fritoFabes con almejas

How it cooks

Shaking, not stirring
Beans simmered so gently they never break, the pot shaken instead of stirred and a splash of cold water added to 'scare' them.
Escanciar
Pouring cider from a bottle held high into a glass held low, so it froths and opens — then drinking it straight away.
Cooking in cider
Chorizo, fish and clams simmered in dry cider, which sharpens the sauce and cuts the fat.
Smoking
Chorizo and morcilla smoked over wood in the farmhouse chimney — the flavour of the fabada's compango.
Breaded and fried
Veal, fish and pastries coated and fried golden — the cachopo, the pixín, the casadielles.

Always in the kitchen

fabessmoked chorizomorcillapork bellydry ciderCabralesbutterwhole milkappleswalnutshazelnutscornmealclamsmonkfishsaffronpimentón

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

AsturianFabada asturianaLarge, buttery white beans stewed slowly with smoked chorizo, morcilla and pork belly until the broth thickens.No one here has made it yetAsturianCachopoTwo large, thin veal fillets sandwiched around ham and cheese, breadcrumbed and fried, and served big enough to share, with chips and peppers.No one here has made it yetAsturianFabes con almejasLarge white Asturian beans cooked slowly and finished with clams, which open in the pot and season it with the sea.No one here has made it yetAsturianArroz con lecheShort-grain rice cooked slowly in plenty of milk with lemon peel and cinnamon until creamy, then topped with sugar burnt to a crust.No one here has made it yetAsturianCasadiellesLittle turnovers of wine-and-lard pastry filled with ground walnuts, sugar and anise, fried and rolled in sugar.No one here has made it yetAsturianChorizo a la sidraSmoked Asturian chorizo simmered in dry cider until the sausage is soft and the cider has cooked down to a sharp, red, rich sauce.No one here has made it yetAsturianPixín fritoMonkfish — pixín in Asturian — cut into chunks, marinated with garlic and lemon, then floured, dipped in egg and fried.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Asturian yet.