Spanish cuisine is a cuisine of excellent produce, regional recipes and conviviality. It has Roman, Arab and Jewish roots, was enriched by ingredients from the Americas such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and chocolate, and in recent decades has become a world reference for innovation. For meal times and habits see eating in Spain.
Produce
- Olive oil: Spain is the world's largest producer, led by Andalusia and especially the province of Jaén, covered by a sea of olive trees.
- Jamón: cured ham. Jamón ibérico, from Iberian pigs, and above all de bellota, from pigs raised free-range on the dehesas and fed on acorns, is considered among the best in the world; the most famous areas are Jabugo (Huelva), Guijuelo (Salamanca), the Dehesa de Extremadura and Los Pedroches. Jamón serrano comes from white pigs.
- Charcuterie: chorizo, lomo, salchichón, morcilla and Balearic sobrasada.
- Cheeses: sheep's-milk manchego from La Mancha, blue cabrales from Asturias, Galician tetilla, Basque idiazábal, torta del Casar from Extremadura and mahón from Menorca.
- Saffron, pimentón (smoked paprika from La Vera), rice from Valencia and Calasparra, pulses, and fish and seafood from the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Region by region
- Andalusia: gazpacho, a cold soup of tomato, pepper, cucumber, garlic, oil and vinegar; Córdoba's thicker salmorejo; pescaíto frito; ham; and sherry.
- Valencian Community: paella valenciana, with chicken, rabbit, green beans and garrofó beans, cooked in the paellera over a wood fire; arroz a banda, arroz negro with squid ink, fideuà with thin noodles, and horchata, a cool tiger-nut drink.
- Catalonia: pa amb tomàquet, bread rubbed with tomato and oil, escalivada, romesco and allioli sauces, grilled calçots with sauce in February, crema catalana.
- Madrid and Castile: cocido madrileño, a stew of chickpeas, meats and vegetables served in three courses; Segovia's cochinillo and roast lamb from the wood oven; bread migas; garlic sopa castellana.
- Galicia: pulpo a la gallega (octopus with paprika and oil), seafood, empanada, lacón con grelos, almond tarta de Santiago.
- Asturias: fabada, a stew of white beans with chorizo and morcilla, and cider.
- Basque Country and Navarre: bacalao al pil-pil, merluza en salsa verde, pintxos, Gernika peppers, vegetables from the Navarrese Ribera.
- Aragon and La Rioja: ternasco (lamb), pollo al chilindrón, patatas a la riojana.
- Balearics and Canaries: Majorcan ensaimada and sobrasada; Canarian papas arrugadas with mojo.
Dishes from all over Spain
Tortilla de patatas, the potato omelette with or without onion, is perhaps the most national dish, together with tapas, fried calamares, croquetas and patatas bravas. Desserts include churros, flan, arroz con leche and Easter torrijas (see sweets).
New cuisine
From the 1970s the nueva cocina vasca of Juan Mari Arzak and Pedro Subijana, and then Ferran Adrià's experimental cooking at El Bulli on the Costa Brava, made Spain a world laboratory. Restaurants such as El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Mugaritz, Arzak, Martín Berasategui, Akelarre and DiverXO are destinations for gastronomic pilgrimages, and congresses such as Madrid Fusión bring together the great chefs every year.