A Mediterranean kitchen of sauces — a slow sofregit to begin, a pounded picada to finish — with bread rubbed with tomato, vegetables charred in the embers, and sea and mountain on the same plate.
Where it comes from
Catalonia has its own language and a cookery writing to match: the Llibre de Sent Soví, a medieval cookbook in Catalan, is often counted among the oldest in Europe, and it already knows the pounded sauces the kitchen still turns on.
Its cooking sits between the sea and the mountains — fish stews and rice from the coast, cured pork and game from the Pyrenees and the plains — and it likes to put them together, chicken with prawns or cuttlefish with meatballs, in dishes it calls mar i muntanya.
Much of it is built the same way: onion and tomato cooked down slowly at the start, and a picada of garlic, nuts and fried bread stirred in at the end. Allioli and romesco sit on the table beside it.
Where in it
BarcelonaThe city of the Boqueria market and the bar counter, where bread rubbed with tomato comes with almost everything and salt cod is sold soaked and ready to use.Pa amb tomàquetEsqueixadaCrema catalana
Valls and the Camp de TarragonaCalçots grilled over vine cuttings are Valls's great winter feast, and Tarragona's fishermen are said to have made the first romesco.Calçots amb romesco
The Empordà and the Costa BravaFishing towns like Palamós, known for its red prawns, where suquet began as fishermen's food — and a plain of rice, fruit and mar i muntanya inland.Suquet de peix
Vic and OsonaPig country on a high plain north of Barcelona, famous for its fuet and llonganissa, and for the fresh botifarra that goes on every grill.Botifarra amb mongetes
LleidaThe dry, inland west: orchards along the Segre, and snails, which the city eats in great numbers at its Aplec del Caragol, cooked on trays over the fire.
How it cooks
Sofregit
Onion cooked very slowly in olive oil, then tomato, until dark and jammy — often the better part of an hour. The start of rice, stews and suquet.
Picada
Garlic, fried bread, toasted almonds or hazelnuts and parsley pounded in a mortar — sometimes with saffron or a little chocolate — and stirred in at the end to thicken and season.
Escalivar
Vegetables cooked whole in the embers of a wood fire until blackened, then peeled — from caliu, the hot embers.
Allioli
Garlic and olive oil pounded to an emulsion in a mortar — strictly with nothing else, though an egg yolk makes it easier.
Mar i muntanya
Sea and mountain in one pot: chicken with prawns, meatballs with cuttlefish, rabbit with snails.