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Coca de recapte

In Lleida and the farmland of inland Catalonia, the coca de recapte was once baked in the village oven on bread day, topped with whatever was in the larder; recapte means provisions. Today bakeries sell long trays of it, and families take slices on Sunday outings. The topping is essentially escalivada: aubergine, red pepper and onion, roasted then laid raw-side-up on the dough. Bakeries often add salted sardines or anchovies; this version is vegetarian. Chef's tip: roast the vegetables only until soft, not falling apart; they cook a second time on the coca.

120 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Porra antequerana

In Antequera, north of Málaga, porra comes to the table so thick that a spoon stands up in it, and bars in the old town serve it from May until the first autumn rains as a starter or a light supper. It is a cousin of salmorejo, but with green pepper and more garlic, and the town tops it with chopped egg and a thread of oil. Locally the garnish also includes tuna and cured ham; this version keeps it vegetarian with egg and diced pepper. A common mistake is thinning it with water to make it go further: porra should be spooned, never sipped. Chef's tip: use only the reddest, softest tomatoes of the summer, because a pale tomato makes a pink, flat-tasting porra however much oil you add.

20 min

Spanish Soups

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Merluza a la sidra

Asturias has two great loves at table, the fish landed at ports like Cudillero and Avilés and the cider pressed from its orchards, and merluza a la sidra brings them together. Families cook it for Sunday lunch, the hake settled on a bed of soft onion and potato with cider poured over, until the sauce turns sweet-sharp. The cider is alcoholic; cloudy apple juice with a little cider vinegar makes a good alcohol-free swap. Chef's tip: add the hake only when the potatoes are nearly tender, so the fish stays juicy.

60 min

Spanish Fish

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Mazapán de Toledo

Toledo's convents have shaped marzipan for centuries, and in December the city's pastry shops fill their windows with coiled eels, half-moons and little figures, glazed golden and sold by weight for Christmas. Toledo's version is firm and almond-rich, with less sugar than many, and the best is made with Marcona almonds. Chef's tip: let the shaped pieces dry, uncovered, overnight before glazing; they hold their shape and the glaze sets glossy instead of soaking in.

50 min

Spanish Desserts

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Carquinyolis

Catalan bakeries sell carquinyolis in paper bags, especially around Christmas and village festivals, and grandparents keep a tin of them to dunk in coffee, milk or, after a big lunch, a glass of sweet wine. They are cousins of Italian cantucci, but often rougher, with whole unpeeled almonds and a hint of lemon and cinnamon. Baked once as a log, sliced, then baked again, they keep for weeks. Chef's tip: slice the logs while still warm with a serrated knife and a single firm cut; cold logs crumble and the almonds shatter.

60 min

Spanish Baking

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Botifarra amb mongetes

This contains pork (botifarra sausage). Ask in any Barcelona neighbourhood restaurant for the most Catalan plate on the menu and you will probably get this: a coil of grilled botifarra, a fresh pork sausage seasoned with little more than salt and pepper, beside white beans sautéed with garlic and parsley until crisp at the edges. It is everyday lunch food, and often comes with allioli. If you cannot find botifarra, use coarse, plain fresh pork sausages. Chef's tip: let the beans sit untouched in the hot pan for a minute between stirs, so some of them catch and crisp.

30 min

Spanish Meat

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Gachas dulces

On the night of 31 October and on All Saints' Day, families across La Mancha make sweet gachas: flour toasted in olive oil with aniseed, loosened with milk and sugar into a soft cream, and topped with crisp cubes of fried bread. Each person dips a spoon into the communal dish while the season's first cold nights settle in. Chef's tip: toast the flour in the oil until it smells nutty before adding any milk; raw flour tastes pasty.

35 min

Spanish Desserts

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Fariñes

Fariñes, or farrapes in some valleys, fed Asturian farming families through the winter: a pot of maize meal stirred over the fire, eaten for breakfast or as a light supper with cold milk poured over the hot porridge. Today it is comfort food again, offered at rural guesthouses in the Oriente and made at home when the weather turns. The contrast of warm, soft porridge and cold milk is the whole point. Chef's tip: whisk the cornmeal into cold water before it heats so it never forms lumps.

30 min

Spanish Breakfast & Brunch

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Gazpachuelo malagueño

Málaga's fishermen once made gazpachuelo on the beach with whatever the nets brought in, and today it is a winter comfort soup in the city's homes and old-style taverns: a clear broth with potatoes, hake and prawns, slowly poured over a homemade mayonnaise until it turns pale and creamy. Done right it is silky, lemony and light. The eggs in the mayonnaise must be heated through properly, so this method brings the soup to 72 °C at the end without boiling it. Chef's tip: add the broth to the mayonnaise, never the other way round, and at first only a ladle at a time.

65 min

Spanish Soups

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Flores manchegas

Every household in La Mancha seems to own a flower-shaped iron, a long-handled mould that is dipped in hot oil, then in batter, then back in the oil, where a lacy flower slides off as it sets. Grandmothers make towers of them for Holy Week and Carnival, and they are sold in bags at village fiestas from Cuenca to Tomelloso. You can buy the iron, sometimes called a rosette iron, in kitchen shops. Chef's tip: the iron must be very hot each time it goes into the batter, or the batter won't cling.

55 min

Spanish Desserts

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Panellets

For the Castanyada on 31 October and All Saints' Day, Catalan families roast chestnuts, eat sweet potatoes and make panellets: little balls of almond marzipan, bound with a spoonful of cooked potato, then rolled in pine nuts, glazed with egg and baked until golden. The pine-nut ones are the classic, and children often help roll them. They are eaten with a glass of sweet wine or a cup of coffee. Chef's tip: wet the marzipan balls lightly with egg white before rolling; it is the glue that holds the pine nuts on.

57 min

Spanish Desserts

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Mel i mató

On the road up to Montserrat, farm women once sat at stalls selling fresh mató, a soft, mild, unsalted curd cheese, and the dessert of mató drizzled with honey became a fixture of Catalan restaurants. It is as simple as dessert gets, and best with the freshest cheese. Shop-bought mató and some ricottas are set with animal rennet; this home version is set with lemon juice instead, so it is vegetarian. If you buy cheese, check the label for a vegetarian or microbial rennet. Chef's tip: heat the milk gently and stop at 90 °C; boiling makes the curds tough and grainy.

30 min

Spanish Desserts

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Bunyols de l'Empordà

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 min

Spanish Desserts

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Suquet de peix

Fishermen from Cadaqués, Palamós and the other Costa Brava ports made suquet on board with the fish that would not sell: rockfish, monkfish, hake, a few prawns, simmered with potatoes in a sofrito and thickened at the end with a picada of garlic, almonds, parsley and fried bread. Now it is a weekend lunch in harbour restaurants, served straight from the pan. The potatoes must release their starch so the broth turns into a light, silky sauce. Chef's tip: 'crack' the potatoes rather than slicing them: cut part way, then snap off the pieces; the rough edges give up more starch.

70 min

Spanish Fish

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Espinacs a la catalana

This dish carries the sweet-and-savoury taste of medieval Catalan cooking: spinach wilted with plump raisins and toasted pine nuts, sometimes with a little pork fat or anchovy, though olive oil is just as traditional. Families cook it in spring and autumn as a side for fish or chicken, or as a light first course before the main. It takes ten minutes. Chef's tip: soak the raisins in warm water first so they swell and burst sweetly, instead of turning hard in the hot pan.

20 min

Spanish Sides

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Rosquillas de San Isidro

Every 15 May, crowds head to the Pradera de San Isidro on Madrid's southern edge for the patron saint's festival, and stalls sell rosquillas by the dozen: plain "tontas" (silly ones) and iced "listas" (clever ones). Many families now bake them at home that week. Old recipes ice the listas with raw egg white; this one uses a lemon and icing-sugar glaze, which is safer and sets just as white. Chef's tip: oil your hands to shape the rings; the dough is soft and sticky by design.

50 min

Spanish Baking

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Mar i muntanya

Sea and mountain: the cooks of the Empordà, between the Pyrenees and the Costa Brava, have long put chicken and seafood in one pot, and this version with prawns is the one most families make for a celebration lunch. The sauce is a dark sofrito finished with a picada of almonds, hazelnuts, garlic and a little dark chocolate, which adds depth rather than sweetness. It uses wine; the alcohol-free option is in the ingredient list. Chef's tip: cook the prawns only briefly at the start and return them at the end, so they stay juicy while the chicken braises.

90 min

Spanish Chicken

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Chorizo a la sidra

No sidrería in Oviedo's Calle Gascona is without a clay dish of chorizo bubbling in cider, served with bread to mop up the paprika-red juices. It takes minutes, is cheap, and is the first thing ordered while the waiter pours cider from shoulder height. This contains pork (chorizo) and uses dry Asturian cider, which is alcoholic; for an alcohol-free version use cloudy apple juice with a splash of cider vinegar, as noted below. Chef's tip: prick the chorizo all over first so it releases fat into the cider and drinks the cider back in.

25 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

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Bollos preñaos

At every Asturian romería, the summer pilgrim fairs held in meadows from Llanes to Cangas del Narcea, stalls sell bollos preñaos by the dozen, warm from the oven, to eat with cider on the grass. The name means "pregnant buns": each soft roll carries a chorizo inside, and its paprika fat seeps into the crumb as it bakes. This contains pork (chorizo). Chef's tip: use semi-cured chorizo sausages that are already safe to eat; raw fresh chorizo may not cook through inside the dough.

55 min

Spanish Breads & Parathas

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Bica de Trives

Pobra de Trives, a mountain town in Ourense, holds a festival every August in honour of its bica, a rich, close-textured cake made with fresh cream and butter from local dairies. It is baked in a rectangular tin, sold in paper and eaten in thick slices with coffee or a glass of milk. The sugar scattered on top bakes into a thin, crackly crust. A common mistake is overmixing once the flour goes in, which makes it tough; fold just until no streaks remain. Chef's tip: whip the egg whites separately and fold them in last for a lighter crumb.

65 min

Spanish Baking

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Pote asturiano

Before fabada became famous, pote was what simmered on every Asturian hearth: white beans, dark winter cabbage, potatoes and the cured pork mix the locals call compango. It is still the dish for a cold, wet weekday in the mining valleys around Mieres and Langreo, served from the pot with crusty bread. This contains pork (chorizo, morcilla, pork belly and ham hock). Chef's tip: add the morcilla only for the last 20 minutes and never stir hard after that, or it breaks up and clouds the broth.

185 min

Spanish Meat

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Rabo de toro

Córdoba claims rabo de toro as its own, and its taverns near the Mezquita serve it all year, though it is most at home on a cold winter Sunday. Once it was made with the tails of bulls from the ring; now it is beef or veal oxtail, browned and braised for hours in red wine with vegetables until the meat slips off the bone into a glossy, sticky sauce. This recipe uses wine; the alcohol-free option is in the ingredient list. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead, chill it and lift off the set fat; the sauce is cleaner and the flavour deeper.

240 min

Spanish Meat

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Coca de Sant Joan

On the night of 23 June, the Revetlla de Sant Joan, Catalonia lights bonfires, sets off firecrackers on every beach and street, and shares a long oval coca: a soft, lemony brioche topped with candied fruit, pine nuts and crunchy sugar. Bakeries sell thousands, but a homemade one, still slightly warm, is something else. Some recipes add a splash of anise liqueur; this one uses aniseed instead. Chef's tip: give the shaped dough a long, slow second rise; a well-proved coca bakes up light, an under-proved one dense.

65 min

Spanish Baking

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Piononos de Santa Fe

The pionono was invented in Santa Fe, on the plain outside Granada, in the late nineteenth century by a local pastry maker who named it after Pope Pius IX, Pío Nono in Spanish. The town still sells them by the dozen from its bakeries, and granadinos carry boxes home for Sunday coffee. Each one is a little standing roll of thin sponge soaked in cinnamon syrup, filled with custard and capped with a dome of custard burnt under a hot iron or torch. Chef's tip: roll the sponge while it is still warm and pliable; once cool it cracks instead of curling.

75 min

Spanish Desserts

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