Catalan cuisine

The Catalan / Valencian cultural domain
Pa amb tomàquet (bread and tomato with olive oil)
Language Alphabet Grammar History Phonology Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua Institut d'Estudis Catalans Institut Ramon Llull Fundació Ramon Llull
People Catalan people Valencian people
History History of Andorra History of Catalonia Crown of Aragon Kingdom of Majorca Kingdom of Valencia Principality of Catalonia Catalan constitutions Furs of Valencia Treaty of the Pyrenees Nueva Planta decrees
Geo-political divisions Andorra Balearic Islands Catalonia Northern Catalonia Valencian Community Alghero El Carxe La Franja See Catalan Countries
Government and politics General Council of Andorra Generalitat de Catalunya General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales Generalitat Valenciana Govern de les Illes Balears Politics of Andorra Politics of Catalonia Catalan nationalism Valencian nationalism
Traditions and symbols Caganer Castells Correfoc Falles Fogueres de Sant Joan Gegants i capgrossos Moros i cristians Muixeranga Saint George's Day Sardana Tió de Nadal Cuisine Coca Ensaïmada Pa amb tomàquet Paella Myths and legends Symbols Traditions
Arts Salvador Dalí Antoni Gaudí Joan Miró Joaquín Sorolla Antoni Tàpies Music Nova Cançó Lluís Llach Rock català Rumba catalana Literature Decadència Renaixença Modernisme Noucentisme Jacint Verdaguer Ramon Llull Ausiàs March

Catalan cuisine is the cuisine from the Principality of Catalonia. It may also refer to the shared cuisine of Roussillon and Andorra, the second of which has a similar cuisine to that of the neighbouring Alt Urgell and Cerdanya comarques and which is often referred to as "Catalan mountain cuisine".^[1] It is considered a part of western Mediterranean cuisine.^[2]

Alternative views

Some contemporary Catalan authors, such as Josep Pla,^[3] Jaume Fàbrega^[4] or Eliana Thibaut i Comalada,^[5] and others like Colman Andrews,^[6] have suggested that, besides Catalonia proper, this cuisine takes in the Balearic and Valencian cuisines,^[7] but this opinion is challenged as politicised, and is not widespread, nor is it supported by either the Balearic or the Valencian government,^[8][9] while the Catalan government itself provides divergent points of view.^[10][11] In any case, mutual ties do exist between Catalan gastronomy and other western Mediterranean gastronomies, such as Balearic cuisine, Valencian cuisine, Southern French cuisine, Aragonese cuisine or Murcian cuisine.

Basic ingredients

It relies heavily on ingredients popular along the Mediterranean coast, including fresh vegetables (especially tomato, garlic, eggplant (aubergine), capsicum, and artichoke), wheat products (bread, pasta), Arbequina olive oils, wines, legumes (beans, chickpeas), mushrooms, all sorts of pork preparations (sausage from Vic, ham), all sorts of cheese, poultry, lamb, and many types of fish like sardine, anchovy, tuna, and cod.

The traditional Catalan cuisine is quite diverse, ranging from pork-intensive dishes cooked in the inland part of the region (Catalonia is one of the main producers of swine products in Spain) to fish-based recipes along the coast.

The cuisine includes many preparations that mix sweet and savoury and stews with sauces based upon botifarra (pork sausage) and the characteristic picada (ground almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, etc. sometimes with garlic, herbs, biscuits).

• 

  Fruits from La Boqueria Market, Barcelona

• 

  Rovellons or Pinatells, a tasty wild mushroom

Savoury dishes

• Catalan-style cod (with raisins and pine nuts)
• Escalivada (various grilled vegetables)
• Escudella (a stew, it may be served as soup with pasta and minced meats and vegetables, or as the soup first and then the rest)
• Ollada (meat and vegetable stew)
• Esqueixada (salted cod salad with tomato and onion)
• Mongetes amb botifarra (beans and pork sausage)
• Pa amb tomàquet (bread smeared with tomato and oil, and sometimes garlic)
• Tonyina en escabetx (tuna escabeche)
• Suquet de peix (a seafood casserole)
• Savoury Coca
• Mar i Muntanya ("Sea and Mountain") dishes, which combine meat and seafood
• Embotits, a generic name for different kinds of cured pork meat, including Fuet (a characteristic type of dried sausage) and Salchichón or Llonganissa (salami).
• Calçot (specially cultivated onion, grilled and served as a "Calçotada")
• Cargols a la llauna (cooked snails)
• Sonsos

Sauces and condiments

• Allioli, a thick sauce made of garlic and olive oil, used with grilled meats or vegetables, and some dishes. Allioli means garlic (all) and (i) oil (oli) in Catalan.
• Samfaina, also called tomacat or pebrots amb tomàquet. It's a variety of Occitan ratatouille or Spanish Pisto.
• Salvitxada (made from almonds, hazelnuts, garlic, bread, vinegar, tomatoes, olive oil and dried red peppers) from Valls.
• Xató, a variety of Salvitxada without tomatoes.

Sweets and desserts

• Crema catalana, the famous yellow cream made with egg yolk, milk and sugar, whose denseness is between a crème pâtissière or natillas and a flan; used to stuff a great amount of pastries, or to make simple desserts with, for example, fruit, and that is also eaten in a small flat pottery plate, after covering the cream with white crystal sugar and burning it, in order to create a layer of solid sugar that has to be broken with a small spoon before reaching the cream.
• Mató de Pedralbes or mató de monja is another kind of Catalan cream, similar to crema catalana, originating in Barcelona.
• Menjablanc or menjar blanc, typical of Reus but eaten all over Catalonia, is a kind of white cream made with almonds, from which a sort of milk is first obtained, followed by a cream to be eaten with a small spoon.
• Peres de Lleida is a typical dessert originated in Lleida composed of peeled pears cooked in a kind of lighter crema catalana and served cold, covered by meringue and decorated with cherries.
• Xuixos are fried pastries created in Girona and stuffed with crema catalana.
• Mel i mató, a dessert of mató cheese with honey
• Pastissets, or casquetes, de cabell d'àngel are sweet half-circle shaped pastries stuffed with cabell d'àngel (a sort of marrow jam) and covered with white crystal sugar which are eaten at coffee time.
• Carquinyolis are little crunchy almond biscuits often eaten at coffee time.
• Catànies are Catalan marcona almonds covered with white chocolate and powdered black chocolate to be eaten with the coffee.
• Pets de monja are small nipple-shaped and -sized biscuits also eaten at coffee time. At first they were called pits de monja (nuns' nipples) but time has changed their name to the current pets de monja (nuns' farts).
• Sweet coques were at first eaten only on holidays. Catalonians have at least one type of traditional coca for each holiday and feast day of the year.
• Orelletes are thin fried pastries covered with sugar and eaten during Carnival. They also exist in nearby regions in Spain or France.
• Sweet bunyols as bunyols de vent, bunyols stuffed with crema catalana or bunyols de l'Empordà are typically done and eaten on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent.
• Mona de Pasqua is a pastry richly covered with almonds, yolk jam, chocolate eggs (or, currently, large chocolate sculptures) and coloured decoration that the godfather and godmother give as a present every year to their godchildren on Easter (Pasqua). It is an ancient pre-Christian tradition which marked the passage from childhood to the adult world. At first, it has one egg for each year of the children's age, and continuing to add one egg each year until twelve, as at thirteen they are no longer considered children.
• Panellets are small pastries made of pine nuts, almonds and sugar with different shapes and flavors, eaten during la Castanyada, which Catalans celebrate on 1 November instead of Halloween. Their origin is Jewish, before the Middle Ages, but the tradition of castanyada is much older.
• Tortell, also called torta or roscó in Northern and Southern dialects. It is round, it can be made of puff pastry or a mixture similar to lionesas and palos, and stuffed with trufa (a mixture of cacao, chocolate and cream) or with crema catalana. It is typically bought and eaten after Sunday's lunch, in family or with friends. A common alternative is called the braç de gitano (Gypsy's arm), that in Catalonia is always covered with yolk jam.
• A specific tortell is in fact a special coca that Catalonians only eat on the Day of the Three Kings (6 January) which is called "tortell de reis" (or galeta de reis in French Catalonia) a typical ring-shaped pastry stuffed with marzipan or Catalan cream (crema catalana) and topped with glazed fruit and nuts.
• Torró, a Christmas sweet made with almonds with DAO of Agramunt (Lleida).
• Neules are also eaten on Christmas in Catalonia. They are dipped in cava (Catalan champagne). They have the same origin as waffles and Belgian Goffres.

Wines

There are 11 Catalan wine-growing regions qualified by the INCAVI (The Catalan Institute of Wine): Priorat, Penedès, Catalunya, Costers del Segre, Conca de Barberà, Montsant, Alella, Tarragona, Empordà, Pla del Bages and Terra Alta.

The sparkling wine cava, made mainly in the Penedès and Anoia regions, is the Catalan equivalent to champagne. It is widely exported.

"Moscatell" (Empordà), is a sweet Catalan wine which have similar varieties in other countries such as France, Italy, Portugal, Albania, Slovenia, Greece, Romania and Turkey, as well as other regions of Spain. However, Catalan moscatell is thicker than French muscat and is not drunk before the meal (aperitiu) but after it, either with or after dessert.

Chefs and restaurants

Catalan cooks and chefs are widely renowned and critically acclaimed all over the world. Two of the five best restaurants in the world are in Catalonia, and four restaurants have three Michelin stars. Barcelona has nine Michelin stars including Cinc Sentits^[12] and has been chosen as the best gastronomical city by the American TV network MSNBC in 2009, topping the list of the ten best gastronomical cities in the world.

See also

• Balearic cuisine
• List of Restaurants in Barcelona
• Spanish cuisine
• Valencian cuisine
• Food portal

Notes

References

• Andrews, Colman, Catalan Cuisine. Harvard Common Press, 2006 ISBN 1-55832-329-5
• Fàbrega i Colom, Jaume, Traditional Catalan Cooking. Edicions de La Magrana, 1997, ISBN 84-7410-964-7 ISBN 9788474109641
• Lladonosa i Giró, Josep, The Book of Catalan Kitchen. Alianza Editorial, 2007, ISBN 84-206-0354-6

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cuisine of Catalonia.

• Catalan recipes in English
• www.eatcatalunya.com
• www.lacuinacatalana.com (Catalan)
• DOP IGP Salchichón de Vic or Llonganissa de Vic (Spanish)

Catalonia topics History Chronology Prehistoric Iberia Roman Hispania Count of Barcelona Catalan constitutions Crown of Aragon Catholic Monarchs Expansion Catalan Revolt Northern Catalonia loss War of the Spanish Succession Nueva Planta decrees Renaixença Revolutionary Catalonia Franco's dictatorship Autonomous community Catalan independentism Catalan self-determination referendum, 2014 By topic Economic Military Political Geography Climate Comarques Forests Municipalities Mountains Provinces Rivers Vegueries Politics Elections Government Parlament (parliament) Police force Political parties President Statute of Autonomy Economy Catalan peseta Financial crisis Property bubble Rail Roads Tourism Trade unions Transport Wine Society Crime Demographics Education Health care Law People Prostitution Religion Traditions Culture Architecture Art Caganer Castell Correfoc Cuisine pa amb tomàquet Gegants i capgrossos Football Language Literature Music Nova Cançó rumba catalana rock català Mythology Public holidays Sardana Sport Tió de Nadal Symbols Anthem Catalan donkey Coat of arms Flag Pi de les Tres Branques St George's Day Outline Category Portal WikiProject

Catalonia topics History Chronology Prehistoric Iberia Roman Hispania Count of Barcelona Catalan constitutions Crown of Aragon Catholic Monarchs Expansion Catalan Revolt Northern Catalonia loss War of the Spanish Succession Nueva Planta decrees Renaixença Revolutionary Catalonia Franco's dictatorship Autonomous community Catalan independentism Catalan self-determination referendum, 2014 By topic Economic Military Political Geography Climate Comarques Forests Municipalities Mountains Provinces Rivers Vegueries Politics Elections Government Parlament (parliament) Police force Political parties President Statute of Autonomy Economy Catalan peseta Financial crisis Property bubble Rail Roads Tourism Trade unions Transport Wine Society Crime Demographics Education Health care Law People Prostitution Religion Traditions Culture Architecture Art Caganer Castell Correfoc Cuisine pa amb tomàquet Gegants i capgrossos Football Language Literature Music Nova Cançó rumba catalana rock català Mythology Public holidays Sardana Sport Tió de Nadal Symbols Anthem Catalan donkey Coat of arms Flag Pi de les Tres Branques St George's Day Outline Category Portal WikiProject

Cuisine Regional African Americas Asian Balkan Bengal Caribbean Caucasian Central Asian East African European Global Latin American Mediterranean Middle Eastern Levantine North African South Asian West African Pacific Island National Afghan Albanian Algerian Angolan Argentine Armenian Australian Austrian Azerbaijani Bahraini Bangladeshi Belarusian Belgian Belizean Beninese Bhutanese Bolivian Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswanan Brazilian British Cornish English Scottish Welsh Bruneian Bulgarian Burkinabé Burmese Cambodian Cameroonian Canadian Canadian Chinese cuisine Chadian Chilean Chinese Colombian Congolese Croatian Cuban Cypriot Czech Danish Djiboutian Dutch Ecuadorian Egyptian Emirati Equatorial Guinean Eritrean Estonian Ethiopian Filipino Finnish French Occitan Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Guatemalan Haitian Honduran Hong Kong Hungarian Icelandic Indian Indonesian Iranian Iraqi Irish Israeli Italian Sicilian Ivorian (Côte d'Ivoire) Jamaican Japanese Jordanian Kazakh Kenyan Korean Kosovan Kuwaiti Kyrgyz Lao Latvian Lebanese Libyan Liechtensteiner Lithuanian Luxembourg Macau Macedonian Malagasy Malaysian Maltese Mexican Moldovan Mongolian Moroccan Nepalese New Zealand Nigerian Nigerien Norwegian Omani Pakistani Palestinian Panamanian Peruvian Polish Portuguese Qatari Romanian Russian Salvadoran Saudi Arabian Serbian Singaporean Slovak Slovenian Somali South African Spanish Andalusian Asturian Basque Catalan Galician Sri Lankan Sudanese Swazi Swedish Swiss Syrian Taiwanese Tajik Thai Tibetan Tunisian Turkish Trinidadian and Tobagonian Ukrainian United States American Chinese New American Uruguayan Uzbek Venezuelan Vietnamese Yemeni Ethnic and religious Ainu Akan Arab Assyrian Balochi Berber Buddhist Cajun Circassian Chinese Islamic Crimean Tatar Inuit Italian American Jewish Sephardic Mizrahi Bukharan Jewish Syrian Kurdish Louisiana Creole Maharashtrian Mordovian Native American Parsi Pashtun Pennsylvania Dutch Peranakan Punjabi Sami Sindhi Tatar Yamal Historical List of historical cuisines Ancient Egyptian Ancient Greek Ancient Israelite Ancient Roman Aztec Byzantine Early modern European Historical Chinese Historical South Asian History of seafood History of vegetarianism Inca Mayan Medieval Ottoman Peasant foods Soviet Styles Cuisine classique Fast food Fusion Haute Molecular gastronomy Nouvelle Note by Note Cooking methods List of cooking techniques Baking Boiling Braising Frying Grilling Roasting Sautéing Smoking Steaming Stewing Stir frying Types of food List of foods Cereals Confectionery Condiment Dairy products Dried foods Eggs Flour Dough Batter Fruit Berry Nut Edible fungi Herbs / Spices Meat Seafood Fish Legumes Seeds Snack foods Vegetable Carbohydrate staples Barley Bread Breadfruit Buckwheat Cassava Couscous Maize Millet Noodle Oat Pasta Plantain Potato Pulses Quinoa Rice Rye Sago Sorghum Sweet potato Taro Teff Wheat Yam Types of dish Aspic Biryani Biscuit / Cookie Cake Canapé Casserole Curry Cutlet Dip Dumpling Fritter Ice cream Kebab Lunch meat Meatball Omelette Pancake Pastry Pie Pilaf Pizza Porridge Pottage Pudding Salad Sandwich Open Sauce Soup Steak Stew Sushi Tart Technical Cook Chef Culinary art Kitchen Eating utensils Food preparation utensils Serving utensils Techniques Weights and measures List articles List of cuisines List of African cuisines List of Asian cuisines List of cuisines of the Americas List of European cuisines List of Oceanian cuisines Lists of prepared foods See also Comfort food Famine food Food industry Gastronomy Gourmet List of restaurant terminology Meal Breakfast Lunch Dinner Tea Supper National dish Food portal Drink portal Category Media Wikibooks:Cookbook WikiProject Food and drink

Mediterranean cuisine Northern Africa Algeria Egypt Libya Morocco Tunisia Southern Europe Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus France Gibraltar Greece Italy Macedonia Malta Montenegro Portugal Serbia Slovenia Spain Turkey European regions Andalusia Balearics Balkans Catalonia Corsica Occitania Provence Rome Tuscany Sicily Valencia Western Asia Israel Jordan Lebanon Palestine Syria