Catalonia

One of the most popular Catalan dishes is botifarra, a tasty sausage often eaten in the mountain regions and Iberian Peninsula. It is generally made from lean pork before being grilled and served alongside mongetes (white beans). Often other ingredients, such as garlic, mushrooms, onions and parsley, are added to the meat.

Pa amb tomàquet is, in simple terms, bread rubbed with tomato and you’ll find it accompanying most meals in Catalonia. Smearing the bread was once a means of utilising leftover or stale bread when food was scarce. In more traditional mountainous areas, bread is served with tomatoes, garlic and olive oil and you rub it yourself.

This traditional dish is the perfect starter to a meal and ideal for vegetarians and vegans. There are just two main ingredients in escalivada, aubergines and red peppers. Typically, they’re both left to char on a barbeque or grill before the insides are cut out and mixed with salt, olive oil and garlic.

An old dish with Catalonian origins, arròs negre is made with cuttlefish or squid, green pepper, garlic and white rice, and sometimes with prawns and mussels. Black cuttlefish or squid ink is added to the water the rice is boiled in, providing a more intense seafood flavour. A variation is the noodle dish fideuà negra, which is served with a thick aioli.

In autumn, Catalans forage for mushrooms in the woodlands and countryside to create this hearty stew. Put into a cooking pot with veal, red wine and ripe tomatoes, the mushrooms add an earthy flavour. Before the stew is served, breadcrumbs, saffron, oil, parsley and toasted almonds (known as picada) are introduced to add flavour and thicken the juices.