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Pollo alla romana
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Pollo alla romana

Chicken with peppers and tomato

On Ferragosto, the 15 August holiday when half of Rome heads for the coast, families who stay behind cook pollo alla romana, often the day before so it can be eaten at room temperature. Jointed chicken is browned, then stewed slowly with sweet red and yellow peppers, tomato, garlic and marjoram until the peppers collapse into a sweet, glossy sauce. A little white wine goes in at the start; there's an alcohol-free swap in the ingredients. Serve it with crusty bread for the sauce and a plate of tomatoes or green beans. Chef's tip: season the chicken a few hours ahead and keep it covered in the fridge, so the salt reaches right into the meat.

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Caldinho de feijãoBlack bean soup cups

Order a round at a Rio de Janeiro boteco on a cool evening and a tray of caldinho de feijão is likely to follow: small glasses of smooth, thick black-bean soup, sipped hot, topped with crisp bacon, spring onion and a few drops of pepper sauce. It is earthy, smoky and silky, halfway between a soup and a dip, and often comes with a hard-boiled quail egg or cubes of fried cassava on a cocktail stick. This version is made with pork: smoked bacon cooked into the beans and crisped on top. Leftover feijoada beans make the best caldinho; tinned black beans work fine. People often fail to blend it long enough, leaving it grainy; it should pour like thick cream. For a vegetarian caldinho, leave out the bacon, fry the onion in olive oil and add 1 tsp smoked paprika. Chef's tip: pass the blended soup through a sieve if you want the glossy finish botecos serve.

40 minBrazilianSoupsGluten free
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Caldero del Mar MenorFish rice with allioli

Fishermen on the Mar Menor lagoon and at Cabo de Palos cooked caldero on board in a black iron pot: the catch of rockfish and grey mullet made a broth red with fried ñora peppers, the rice was cooked in it, and the fish was eaten separately with garlicky allioli. Restaurants along the lagoon at San Pedro del Pinatar and Los Alcázares still serve it in two courses, and Calasparra rice from inland Murcia is the classic choice. Chef's tip: ask the fishmonger for the heads and bones of the fish too; they make the broth.

115 minSpanishFishGluten free
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Calderete de la RiberaLamb, potato and artichoke stew

In the Ribera of Navarre, calderete is the dish of fiestas and riverside gatherings: groups of friends, the cuadrillas, set an iron cauldron over vine cuttings and spend a long afternoon stewing lamb with peppers, potatoes and whatever the market gardens have that week. Artichokes are a Ribera signature. At home the same dish works on the stove in a heavy casserole and is just as good the next day. Chef's tip: snap the potatoes into chunks with the knife instead of slicing cleanly, so the rough edges release starch and thicken the sauce.

125 minSpanishMeatGluten free
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Caldereta extremeñaLamb stew with liver sauce

Caldereta is the feast dish of Extremadura's shepherds, cooked in a big iron pot at romerías, weddings and village fiestas, and in many homes for Sunday lunch. Pieces of lamb are browned and stewed with peppers, bay and smoky pimentón de la Vera, then the sauce is thickened with lamb's liver fried with garlic and bread and pounded to a paste, which gives it a deep, rich flavour. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead if you can; like most stews, it tastes better reheated.

125 minSpanishMeat
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Caldereta de llagostaSpiny lobster stew

In the fishing village of Fornells, on Menorca's north coast, caldereta de llagosta is the summer splurge people plan a whole holiday around, ladled from a clay pot onto plates lined with thin slices of dry bread. Spiny lobster is cut into pieces and simmered in a deep, tomato-rich sofrito with onion, green pepper and garlic, then thickened with a picada of the lobster's own liver, almonds and parsley. A splash of brandy is common; it is optional here, and the stew is just as good without. Chef's tip: let the sofrito cook until dark and jammy before the lobster goes in, because that slow base is where the broth gets its depth.

90 minSpanishFish
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Caldeirada de tucunaréRiver fish stew

Peacock bass, tucunaré, is the prize of the Rio Negro, and in Manaus it ends up in caldeirada: a layered pot of firm fish steaks, potatoes, tomatoes, onions and peppers, simmered in their own broth with coriander and culantro and finished with boiled eggs. Riverside restaurants and Sunday lunches serve it in big clay pots with white rice, pirão made from the broth and plenty of pimenta-de-cheiro. The broth is light, tangy and fresh, the fish sweet and meaty. Outside Brazil, use sea bass, snapper or any firm white fish cut into steaks. The commonest slip is stirring the pot once the fish is in; shake it gently instead so the steaks stay whole. Chef's tip: layer the potatoes at the bottom where the heat is strongest, so they finish cooking just as the fish turns opaque on top.

65 minBrazilianFishGluten free
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Kadınbudu köfteFried rice and mince patties

The name means 'lady's thigh', a playful Ottoman-era compliment to their plump, tender shape, and these köfte still appear in Istanbul home kitchens and old lokantas for Friday lunch. Half the meat is cooked with onion first, then mixed with raw mince, rice and herbs, so the köfte are unusually soft and moist. They are dipped in egg and fried golden, and served with a simple tomato salad and pilaf or mashed potato. Chef's tip: the rice must be fully cooked and cooled before mixing, or the köfte crack and fall apart in the pan.

65 minTurkishMeat
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Caldeirada de enguiasEel stew with potatoes and peppers

Eels from the Ria de Aveiro, the lagoon behind the town, are a speciality of Murtosa and Torreira, where caldeirada is cooked in layers in a wide pot and eaten at long tables in waterside restaurants. Onions, potatoes, tomato and peppers stew with the eel pieces in olive oil until the broth is rich and orange, and it is ladled over slices of bread. Ask the fishmonger to skin and clean the eels; eel blood is toxic when raw, but thorough cooking makes it completely safe. Chef's tip: shake the pot rather than stirring once the eel is in, so the pieces stay whole.

70 minPortugueseFish
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Caldeirada à fragateiraFish and potato stew

The fragateiros sailed the flat-bottomed barges that carried cargo up and down the Tagus, and on board they cooked whatever fish they had in one pot, layered with potatoes, onions, tomatoes and peppers and left to steam in olive oil and wine. Lisbon restaurants still make caldeirada for a long lunch, ladled over toasted bread. Use at least three kinds of fish, mixing firm white ones with something richer. The wine contains alcohol; fish stock with a squeeze of lemon makes a good alcohol-free version. A common mistake is stirring the pot, which breaks the fish; shake it instead. Chef's tip: put the firmest fish at the bottom and the most delicate on top, so everything is done at the same time.

75 minPortugueseFish
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Buñuelos de calabazaPumpkin doughnuts

When the Fallas bonfires go up in Valencia each March, every other street corner has a stall frying bunyols de carabassa: rough, ring-shaped pumpkin doughnuts pulled from the oil by the dozen and eaten standing up, usually with a cup of thick hot chocolate. The dough is little more than yeasted flour and cooked pumpkin, which keeps the inside soft and faintly orange and the outside crisp and blistered. They contain no egg, milk or butter, so they are suitable for vegans. A common mistake is adding flour until the dough feels like bread dough; it should be sticky and slack, almost a thick batter, or the doughnuts come out heavy. Chef's tip: keep a bowl of water beside the pan and wet your hands before shaping each one; the dough then slides off your fingers into the oil instead of clinging to them.

65 minSpanishDessertsVegan
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Bunyols de l'EmpordàAnise fritters

During Lent, bakeries and grandmothers across the Empordà in Girona fry bunyols: light, irregular rings of enriched yeast dough flavoured with anise and lemon, dusted with sugar while hot. Families make them together, poking a hole in each ball with wet fingers as it goes into the oil. The dough traditionally takes a splash of anise liqueur; the alcohol-free option, milk infused with aniseed, is in the ingredient list. Chef's tip: keep a bowl of water by the pan and wet your fingers before shaping each one; the dough then stretches cleanly instead of sticking.

70 minSpanishDesserts
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Calçots amb salvitxadaGrilled onions with nut sauce

From January to April, the town of Valls near Tarragona and half of Catalonia go to calçotades: long country lunches where calçots, a tall, sweet onion grown banked up with earth, are flame-grilled until black, wrapped in newspaper to steam, then peeled by hand and dipped in salvitxada. Everyone wears a bib. This salvitxada leans on almonds, roasted tomato and garlic, with ñora peppers for colour and sweetness. If you cannot get calçots, use thick spring onions or slim young leeks. Chef's tip: hold a calçot by the green top, pull the charred outer layer off downwards in one go, then dip and lower it into your mouth from above.

70 minSpanishVegetarianVegan
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Haji badamAlmond and cardamom cookies

Haji badam are the small, pale almond cookies of Yazd, crisp at the edge and soft and chewy inside, baked for Nowruz and kept in tins for guests through the new year. They need only ground almonds, sugar, egg yolk and cardamom, so they are naturally gluten-free. Each one is rolled into a ball and pinched or pressed with a pistachio sliver. A common mistake is baking them until golden all over: pull them when only the bottoms colour, or they go hard and dry. Chef's tip: let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, which makes it much easier to roll without cracking.

35 minPersianBakingGluten free
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CalapurcaHominy and meat soup

Nobody hurries calapurca. In the villages of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, especially around Carnival and the August Pachamama rites, cooks heat stones in the fire until they glow and then drop them into a clay pot of soup made from dried maize, beef and lamb (or llama), potatoes and chilli, so it boils up in a hiss of steam and takes on a faintly smoky taste. Bowls are passed around the gathering with a sprinkle of fresh herbs. The stones are a ritual best left to people who know which ones are safe, because wet or river stones can crack or burst when heated, so this home version simply simmers on the stove. Look for dried white hominy (mote, or pozole corn) in Latin American shops; it needs soaking overnight. The usual problem is undercooked corn: it needs a good 2 hours before the meat goes in. Chef's tip: for a hint of the smoky flavour, char the onion and a dried chilli in a dry pan before adding them.

200 minArgentinianSoupsGluten free
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CajuzinhoPeanut and cocoa sweets

Next to brigadeiros on any children's birthday table in Brazil sit the cajuzinhos, small sweets moulded into the shape of a cashew fruit (caju) and crowned with a single peanut that stands in for the nut. The dough is condensed milk cooked with ground roasted peanuts and a little cocoa until it pulls into a fudge, then rolled in sugar. Each one is chewy, peanutty and gently chocolatey, a bite-size sweet that sits in its own paper case. They are a good make-ahead: shaped cajuzinhos keep for 3 days in a cool place. Undercooking the mixture is the usual problem: soft dough will not hold the cashew shape and slumps in the cases. Chef's tip: oil your hands lightly before shaping and roll each ball into a fat sausage first, then pinch one end narrower to get the cashew outline.

45 minBrazilianDessertsGluten free
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