Farm-to-table-to-fork-to-mouth: Fresh local food in Spain

Perceptions of Spanish cuisine have changed somewhat over the last few years – thanks in part to the madcap creations of Ferran Adrià (the “world’s greatest chef”), and other alumni of the famed elBulli in Catalonia (five times voted the “world’s greatest restaurant”).

Described as ‘molecular gastronomy’, the approach of these chefs have been a combination of science and art, seeking to transform raw ingredients into bizarre, surprising, and often unidentifiable spectacles, such as hot jellied tuna, liquid olives, potato foam, and passion fruit air, all in a brazen attempt, it seems, to improve on their natural state.

Exciting as all this sounds (and very frequently is), the Spanish have a far more natural tendency to celebrate ingredients as they are – be they fresh from the farm or straight from the sea – and the little platos pequeños (that tapas are served on) make an ideal showcase for the best a region has to offer.

Flash-fried navajas (razor clams) and steamed mejillones (mussels), for instance, are cooked from living, and they’re so fresh and unadulterated you can still taste the sea. Likewise, the piquant taste of boquerones (white anchovies) is preserved in the simplest of vinegars and the fish eaten whole. Olives are another mainstay, cured right off the tree, while Galician green peppers, or Pimientos de Padrón, are only fried and topped with a few crystals of salt to showcase it’s unforgettable flavor. Setas (mushrooms), another popular tapa, are simply browned in olive oil to bring out their rich and earthy flavor.

As for the meats, the cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) is a popular specialty from the inland centre of Spain, or the region around Madrid, and is a true farm-to-table affair. Besides requiring very little in the way of seasoning, the piglet goes from suckling on milk to roasting in the oven in less than 48 hours, with little preparation beyond the cleaning of the meat. Traditionally, cochinillo is suspended in a clay pot above an oak wood fire and cooked outside, sometimes even on the very farm it was reared on. This particular dish is one of our favorites and hope to be able to showcase at Ataula in the near future.

In the sunny climate of Spain, barbacoa season is nearly year-round, so there’s always an opportunity for experiences like this. And the pièce de résistance (or should that be atracción principal?) of such open-air cooking is, for many, the ubiquitous Spanish paella. Regional variations of this iconic dish abound, and each takes advantage of fresh, locally-sourced ingredients, as we do here at Ataula.

Traditionally, like cochinillo, paella is cooked over the burning wood of trees native to the region: fast-burning orange and olive wood for boiling the rice, and denser logs for slow-frying meat.

In Valencia, paella is so bound up with the life and flavors of the province that ingredients will change by season. In the summer, fresh green beans add crunch to the other legumes, while in winter the globe artichoke is used. When it’s wet, you might also find some banded vaquetas (snails) in amongst the local game and short-grain rice – seasoned according to the age-old recipe with rosemary, pimentón dulce (sweet paprika), and luxurious yellow saffron.

In coastal areas, where seafood is added, vast sizzling paelleras (the large round pans in which the dish is cooked) line the seafront in simple, open-air restaurants that allow you to gaze out to sea at the source of your meal while you eat it. If you’re up early enough, you might even see the boats come in to make their delivery of fresh shrimp, langostinos, mussels and cuttlefish, before going on to distribute the rest of their catch to the tapas bars in town.

Whether the dish is simple like cochinillo or complex like paella, one thing’s for certain of traditional Spanish food: it’ll always be local. So if you really want to get to know a region and gain a sense of its history and traditions, you need only have a bite of its food!

¡Buen provecho!