Spain > Cuisine of the Costa Daurada

Cuisine of the Costa Daurada

The cuisine of the Costa Daurada is a harmonious blend of dishes from coast and countryside, skil-fully enhanced by contributions from the moun-tains and cities. The region’s multifarious culinary tradition includes one preparation that has come down through the centuries, assimilating the influ-ence of the diverse peoples who have inhabited the zone, and is now becoming famous abroad: romesco.

“Romesco” is a sauce based on the picada (pos-sibly the most distinctive basic ingredient of tradi-tional Catalan cookery, consisting of garlic, parsley, nuts, salt, oil and other ingredients pounded in a mortar). Cold romesco makes an ideal dressing for salads, broiled vegetables, and boiled or grilled fish and seafood. Another type is used as a base for stewed fish and white meats. Dry romesco pepper is the hallmark of this particular picada and gives the other crushed ingredients —roasted garlic cloves, almonds and hazelnuts— their characteristic deep red colour and aroma.

One variant of romesco is the salvitxada sauce served with calgots, the broiled sweet onion shoots which provide the excuse for organizing one of the convivial open-air feasts known as calgotades.

But the magnificent local seafood cuisine — the hub of which is the Serrallo district in Tarragona, the fishing harbour at Cambrils, and the seafront district of Torredembarra— includes much more besides romesco dishes: rossejats, for instance (delicious stewed fish with rice or noodles), or squid cooked in chocolate, or mussels and clams a la marinera. In recent years many new recipes, based on a re-interpretation of tradition and always made from top-quality ingredients, have also been invented.

The cookery of the hinterland features hearty winter dishes such as olla barrejada (a mixed stew), pigs’ trotters with snails, rice with rabbit, and stewed game such as partridge with olives. There are also lighter dishes including sweet and spicy snails or flavoursome omelettes in sauce (truites amb sue). Interesting dishes are made from salt fish such as ganyims of tuna, salt sardine or salt cod. Broiled salt sardines eaten with moscatell grapes freshened in well water and toast spread with roasted tomatoes, olive oil.

The Reus carnival, one of the most lively and authentic in Catalonia, dates back hundreds of years and features a “battle of tomatoes”. Reus is also a city of “giants” and “dwarfs” and these fig-ures are a prime attraction at the festa major held to mark the feast of Saint Peter.

The Costa Daurada is a fun-loving region, as is clearly illustrated at the annual “festa major” held in every city, district and village. Most of these festivals take place in summer and, though the over-all pattern is similar, there are minor variations in each locality. Present-day celebrations feature groups of costumed dancers (giants, dwarfs, mules, dragons, eagles, etc.) and special events (dances, castells, correfocs, etc.) —many of which have evolved over the centuries, as well as tasty culinary specialities.