the Catalan Food Checklist

All i oli

Mashed garlic with olive oil, often with egg yolk added to make it more of a mayonnaise. Fantastic on meat and fideuá.

Arròs a la Cassola or Arròs a la Catalana

Catalan paella, cooked in an earthenware pot and without saffron. Arròs negre is another type of paella but cooked in cuttlefish ink - it's much tastier than it sounds!

Bunyols de Bacallà

Cod fritters made with cod and a dough (flour, water, egg and milk). They contain parsley. 

Bunyols de vent

Dessert pastry that resembles balls made with flour, butter and eggs and then fried in hot oil. They can be stuffed with sweet cream, chocolate... They are typical from All Saints. 

Bolets

Wild mushrooms, best in autumn

Calçots

Large sweet spring onions, typically at their best in February and the centerpiece of the traditional calçotada barbecue.

Cap i Pota

It is nothing more than the head and leg of the beef boiled. Sometimes they add some gut. It is gelatinous stew.

Castanyes i Panellets

November 1st (All Saints Day) is celebrated with eating roasted chestnuts and panellets, an almond sweet often rolled in pine nuts.

Coca

A Catalan version of pizza which can be either savory (with tomato, onion, pepper and sometimes sardines) or sweet (almond-based sometimes served with candied cherries). Common at festivals especially on Noche de San Joan.

Crema Catalana

A delicious version of crème brûlée made with milk.

Conill 

Rabbit is usually cooked in the oven. It can come with potatoes or with snails. In Autumn is normal to accompany it with mushrooms. 

Empedrat

A salad made with beans (it could be also chickpeas or lentils), boiled egg, tomato, onions, red and green peppers and black olives. If it also has cod it becomes a Esqueixada. 

Escalivada

Roasted peppers, eggplant and zucchini that are peeled and served with olive oil. Very similar to samfaina except that it is served cold instead of hot.

Escudella

A soup often served with a meatball and pasta shells. Very typical at Christmas dinner.

Espinacs a la catalana

Spinach salted in a pan with olive oil and raisins and pine nuts. This preparation is often used as a garnish of coques, cannelloni, etc.

Faves a la catalana

These are beans stuffed with red wine, a ray of anise, pork ribs, Bufa (a peculiar sausage that is made in la Garrotxa county) and a sack of bones. Some peas can be also added. 

Fideuá

Similar to paella but uses vermicelli noodles rather than rice as the base. You should also receive a little side dish of alioli to mix in. So good!

Formatge de tupí

A goat's cheese soaked in olive oil or gorritxa, another goat's cheese (made with penicillium mould).

Fricandó

A veal and mushroom stew flavored with nuts, garlic and parsley.

Fuet

A thin, dried pork sausage great on a breakfast bocadillo. Llonganissa, is another type of fuet typically from Vic.

Ametlles garrapinyades

Pickled almonds are raw almonds that have been cooked by being sliced with a crust of roasted sugar, very crunchy. 

Mandonguilles de carn amb sèpia 

Meatballs (made with pork and beef meat) stuffed with sofregit and cuttlefish. Sometimes peas can be added. 

Mar i muntanya

Seafood and meat. The local equivalent of surf 'n' turf.

Mariscada

Seafood grilled. It can include shellfish, shrimp, oysters, crayfish, prawns, scampi, crab...

Mel i mató

Honey and fresh cheese, almost a cottage cheese texture.

Melindros amb xocolata

Melindros are small, elongated, dough with rounded ends. Slightly soft and spongy. We eat them by dipping them in hot chocolate.

Is the catalan version of the Spanish churros con Chocolate. 

Music

A dessert of dried fruits and nuts, sometimes served with a glass of sweet “muscatel” wine.

Pa amb tomàquet

 Toasted bread rubbed with tomato, olive oil, garlic and salt.

Pa de pagès

It is a variant of the rural or rustic bread. The catalan tradition is to cut the slices that you will eat, the rest of the bread can remain soft for a week.

Romesco sauce

A finely ground mixture of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, almonds and olive oil. Perfect for dipping calçots in.

Samfaina sauce 

Red pepper, eggplant, onion and zucchini is similar to ratatouille.

Sarsuela de Peix

Fish dish prepared with different rock fish and seafood cooked in a clay pot with sofregit and nuts. 

Trinxat

It is made with potatoes, cabbage and pork meat, and resembles Bubble and Squeak. The name, meaning “mashed” or “chopped”, is the past participle of the Catalan word trinxar, which means "to slice". 

Xatonada

The xató sauce (made with almonds, hazelnuts, breadcrumbs, vinegar, garlic, olive oil, salt, and the nyora pepper) is often served with an endive salad prepared with anchovy, tuna and salted cod.