The Cuisines of Spain: Exploring Regional Home Cooking - Couverture souple

Chapter 1

From Iberia to España

A Glimpse into Spain’s Past and Its Regions

For thousands of years, the Iberian Peninsula has been the object of desire for many civilizations, all of which have left a permanent imprint on its culture and countryside. The earliest settlers of Spain include the Iberians, the Celts, and prehistoric groups who may be the ancestors of the present-day Basques. But let me start with the Phoenicians, whose traces are still highly visible more than three thousand years later. To cite just a trio of examples of their legacy, they established two major European trading cities in the south, Málaga and Cádiz, still vital today, and they introduced the olive tree, which blankets much of our contemporary landscape. Six hundred years later, the Phoenicians were followed by the Greeks, who ruled Spain, or Iberia as they called it, until their defeat by the Romans.

New rulers, new name: our land became known as Hispania and remained under Roman rule for almost five centuries. In addition to bringing their language, the Romans built roads, bridges, and aqueducts; introduced wheat and the systematic cultivation of the olive; taught us to preserve foods in salt; and established wine making. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Spain became a feudal system of small kingdoms under the control of the Visigoths and Vandals, Germanic tribes who migrated south to expand their territories. During their violent and bloody reign, livestock farming was developed.

Heading north from Africa, armies of Arabs and Berbers, whom the western Europeans called Moors, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain in 711 AD, where they remained for almost eight hundred years. Spain’s vast south–called Vandalus in the time of the Vandals, and changed to Andalus because the Arabic alphabet lacks an equivalent to the letter V–became a Muslim stronghold. Not only did the Moors bring cultural advances in scholarship, science, architecture, and other disciplines, but they also reintroduced the works of the ancient Greeks, which had been lost to Europeans. Fascinated with water, they developed irrigation systems and planted citrus and almond trees in eastern and southern Spain and on the Balearic Islands. They also introduced such everyday staples as rice, sugarcane, figs, apples, pomegranates, mint, cilantro, saffron, cumin, and cinnamon.

A good-sized Jewish population was already resident at the time of the Muslim invasion, having begun emigrating to Hispania primarily during the reign of Hadrian (117—138 AD). The Jews enjoyed recognition for their industrious character and intelligence, but when they suffered the first anti-Semitic legislation in Spain under the Visigoth rule of King Sisebut, they quickly turned their support to the Moors. The Jews already in Hispania and those arriving from Africa with the Moors played an important role in administration, letters, and science. Jewish and Moorish cultures flourished in Spain: their wise men, including doctors, mathematicians, architects, scientists, and philosophers, greatly enriched the contemporary society.

For centuries, Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived together harmoniously on the Iberian Peninsula, which should serve as an example for the tolerance and compatible coexistence needed today. However, that harmony would end with the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, and the establishment of the Inquisition soon after, an atrocious period forever incised into Spanish history. Pacts made with the Moors of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, were broken at the same time, and the Moors were forced to leave or to convert to Christianity. Many basic culinary preferences seen today in some areas, such as the choice of lard over olive oil and pork over lamb, are echoes of the persecution of Jews and Muslims during this time.

These vile actions were initiated during the reign of King Fernando and Queen Isabel, whose marriage in 1469 led to the unification of the peninsula’s two largest kingdoms, Aragón and Castile, in 1479, a union that helped define today’s Spain. The Catholic Kings, as they were known, sought not only to unite their kingdoms, but also to reconquer lands still under Muslim rule, as their treatment of the Moors of Granada illustrates. With the kingdoms united, the monarchs were able to turn their attention to the larger adventures that lay ahead in the Age of Exploration. It was under their rule that la Pinta, la Niña, and la Santa María set sail with Christopher Columbus at the helm.

While Spain’s national treasury was undeniably enriched with New World gold and silver, its culinary stores were equally enriched with the introduction of crops then unknown to the Old World–crops that would eventually change the cooking habits not only of Spain but of the whole of Europe. What would it have been like to cook without potatoes, peppers, corn, tomatoes, or–just imagine–chocolate? The Spaniards, in turn, introduced many Old World crops and livestock to the New World, including wheat, barley, sugarcane, wine, bananas, citrus fruits, cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens.

These were golden times for Spain. It was the center of Europe, serving as the gateway to the newly conquered lands in the Americas. The grandson of the Catholic Kings, Carlos I, ruled the sprawling Habsburg empire and became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. With the seat of the Habsburgs now in Spain, food traditions traveled back and forth all over Europe, affecting the eating habits of the entire continent. In the mid-eighteenth century, the Habsburgs gave way to the Bourbons, who introduced French styles to the Spanish court and upper classes. Naturally, this had its influence on the culinary habits as well, just as the long Spanish rule of Naples and Sicily can still be seen today in many Sicilian dishes. But the French-Spanish exchange went both ways: it has been said that the biggest loot taken during the French rule of Spain was the collection of recipes belonging to the Hieronymite monks in Alcántara. (As is often the case with neighbors, we are in constant rivalry with the French.)

In modern times, Spain’s rich and diverse heritage was threatened by the Spanish Civil War (1936—39) and its aftermath, the dictatorial rule of Francisco Franco. In addition to the repression of regional autonomy that followed the National Movement victory, postwar Spain was plagued by an economic depression that lasted into the 1950s. Even people who were well-off were deprived of legal access to such everyday goods as coffee, sugar, and tobacco, and black markets flourished to satisfy the demand. People (usually women) living near the borders even left the country to buy products unavailable at home: in southern Andalusia, they crossed to Tangiers or Ceuta in Africa, and in the north, to France. During this period of scarcity, Spanish cooking became more austere. The dishes based on fresh and stale bread or dried beans popular today, such as various soups and stews, were often the sole means of sustenance during that time of shortages.

After nearly forty years of dictatorship, when Franco died in 1975, Spain moved toward democracy and the nation underwent decentralization. In 1979, the former fifty-six provinces, previously ruled with an iron fist from Madrid, were grouped into seventeen autonomous communities, each with its own parliamentary government. Some of them were made up of many provinces, others of just one. For example, the largest of them, Andalusia, included seven original provinces, whereas Murcia, Madrid, Asturias, Cantabria, and La Rioja were each formed from a single former province.

Once Franco’s repressive government was removed, Spain began its race to catch up with more developed countries on the continent. Communities across the country began to reaffirm their cultural and regional distinctions and traditions, sparking a cultural renaissance in Spain that continues today.

During the 1960s and 1970s in France, a group of chefs led by Paul Bocuse, the Troisgros brothers, and Michel Guérard, among others, started the nouvelle cuisine movement, which emphasized fresh, clean flavors in cooking. Their innovations inspired new Spanish chefs emerging from the period of austerity. Luis Irízar, regarded as the father of Basque nueva cocina, joined the stream in the early 1970s, and many others soon followed, among them Juan Mari Arzak. Still on top of the wave today, Arzak, along with his Basque countryman Martin Berasategui and two Catalan chefs, Ferran Adrià and Santi Santamaría, has been awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide, and he continues to awaken and inspire new generations of chefs. In fact, the race to excellence has been joined by so many talented chefs from every corner of the country that today Spain can proudly claim that its top restaurants are among the best in the world.

Z Z Z

Spain is composed of a spectacular variety of landscapes, from high sierra to miles of coastline to river valleys rich in fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, olive groves, and oak forests. Rather than looking at the regions strictly according to their present political and administrative boundaries, I find it more appropriate in some cases to group them by the shared climate, geography, and natural resources that have shaped and continue to shape their cuisines. For example, although Asturias and Cantabria are separate autonomous communities, I have put them together because the fish of their shorelines and rivers, their meat and dairy industries, their crops and foods, and their recipes have much in common. So, in this manner, following bean stews rather than political boundaries, let us begin our journey though the culinary regions of Spain.

Andalusia

Bordered by the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in the south, Portugal in the west, Extremadura and Castile in the north, and Murcia in the east, Andalusia is Spain’s largest autonomous com...

Praise for The Cuisines of Spain from around the world:

“It’s rare to find a cookbook that distills the spirit of a people and immerses us in the context of a particular cuisine. To cook creatively, we must uncover the soul of a place so that what we prepare has an identity. Because Teresa Barrenechea allows us to truly grasp Spanish cooking, we come away with much more than a few recipes, but with the essence of her country’s vital respect for food in our hands and in our hearts. A winner.”
–James Peterson, author of Sauces


“In this beautifully illustrated, deliciously researched book, Teresa Barrenechea makes sense out of what outsiders might see as two bewildering paradoxes of Spanish food and indeed Spanish civilization. One is a proud embrace of regional loyalties, coupled with an inescapable overall Spanish identity. The other is a fierce attachment to incredibly old traditions, along with a spirit of defiant modernist invention and reinvention that is just as fierce. Through Teresa’s loving presentation of dishes culled from home cooks, remote rural areas, and sophisticated cities–including many recipes never before published in English–you will instinctively taste how vivid flavor and simple pleasure always have been and still are at the heart of the Spanish culinary ethos.”
–Maricel Presilla, author of The New Taste of Chocolate
“In an era of novelistic cookbooks and florid foodie memoirs, Teresa Barrenechea takes a refreshingly straightforward approach to her subject matter, which is nothing less than the many and varied cuisines of Spain. She sets the scene and adds useful asides, but her main mission is to tell us how to accurately cook a great deal of honest, not overly complicated, unfailingly delicious food, and at this she succeeds superbly.”
–Colman Andrews, author of Catalan Cuisine
“Teresa Barrenechea’s love of and expertise on Spain’s traditional food is beautifully executed in this exciting book, with charming photos and delightful stories of the people, places, and ingredients.”
–Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, The River Cafe, London
“With her restaurants in New York and her participation in numerous cooking events around the world, Teresa Barrenechea has established herself as the most gifted teacher of our cuisine abroad. The Cuisines of Spain is the culmination of her work, and it is a book of great integrity and beauty.”
–Clara Mar’a Gonzalez de Amezœa, coauthor of From Spain with Olive Oil
From Spain's Michelin Three-star Chefs:

“The cuisine of a country is of importance when it is rooted in diverse traditions while at the same time looking to the future. Spanish regional cooking has often been distorted, as so often happens with folk cuisines when we fail to explore their true abundance. In this book, Teresa Barrenechea captures the essence of our country’s authentic regional cooking in a way never before accomplished. I am grateful to her for enlightening us with the wealth of our culinary legacy.”
–Ferran Adriˆ, Restaurante El Bulli
“Teresa Barrenechea has long been an ambassador for the food traditions of our country. In addition to being a wonderful cook, she has touched me as a friend and as a chef for having transmitted the true essence of our regional cuisines through this book.”
–Juan Mari Arzak, Restaurante Arzak
“Teresa Barrenechea has created a precise and beautiful compilation and interpretation of the best Spanish cuisine. This book is truly a declaration of love; Teresa gives to us a present that could only come from a generous soul. I hope this book will invoke in the reader an unbearable curiosity to experience our blessed land, its people, and its gastronomy.”
–Martin Berasategui, Restaurante Berasategui
“The cuisines of Spain are diverse, enduring, and full of contrasts, qualities that Teresa Barrenechea has captured in her wonderful book. The Cuisines of Spain reflects the spirit of the land and the people from which our regional cooking arose.”
–Santi Santamar’a, Restaurante El Rac— de Can Fabes