Discovering the cross-border tastes of Catalonia

A mountain outlaw

Villefranche-de-Conflent is an unusually oblong-shaped walled town crammed into a narrow valley, between steep slopes and the River Tet. Though the fortifications had a Vauban makeover, most of the pink marble town and its walls date from the original 11th-century “enterprise zone”.  The local Count of Cerdanya and Conflent built it as a freetown (the English translation of villefranche) in 1095 to control the valley and cut off his enemies’ wine supplies in winter.

To attract a population of shopkeepers and craftsmen, he invited settlers to live tax-free for three years, after which they could pay taxes when and only as much as they wanted. Their stone shopfronts and tall, narrow houses line deeply shaded streets that open onto dazzling mountain views.

Several hundred feet higher, 17th-century Fort Liberia clings to an outcrop, protecting Villefranche from “aerial” attack. It was originally created by Louis XIV to house prisoners. Visitors can climb more than 700 steps of an underground staircase or take a shuttle bus from the parking area outside the town walls to ascend 180 metres higher. Either way, the reward is a view over three valleys Mont-Louis, Vernet-les-Bains, and Prades.

The tastes of Catalonia in the Pyrénées

As you climb into the Pyrénées and approach the Spanish border, the Catalan influence becomes much more apparent – in the language, in the rustic traditional foods and in the goods for sale in the market towns. The air of the enormous Saturday market in the border town of Ceret resounds with Catalan; the market stalls are laden with Catalan specialities – bunches of vegetables and jars of sauces rarely seen elsewhere in France.

A crowded market day in Ceret.

After we browsed the market and visited Ceret’s gem of a modern art museum (Picasso and Matisse, friends of the founder, helped create it), we stopped in a café on the edge of the market to try pain à la Catalana (pa amb tomàquet in Catalan ) and calçots with romesco sauce.

Both dishes seemed to be on every Catalan menu on both sides of the border. Make them at home and you can experience a taste of Catalonia at your own table.

Pa amb tomàquet

Catalan tomato bread is ubiquitous in Catalonian homes and cafés at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Where you might expect a basket of bread plonked down on a table elsewhere, here you are more likely to see the raw ingredients of pa amb tomàquet set out so you can make your own while you peruse the menu.

It’s easy to make and you don’t really need a recipe; you just have to assemble the ingredients:

• good quality day-old bread (rustic loaves or baguettes are best)
• extra virgin olive oil
• coarse salt
• fat cloves of garlic, cut in half
• very ripe tomatoes.

Directions

1. Roughly slice the bread so that it has some surface texture. If the bread isn’t a bit stale, toast it or dry it out for a few minutes in a slow oven. The aim is for each slice of bread to act a bit like a grater.
2. Rub the surface of the bread with the cut clove of garlic.
3. Cut the tomatoes in half or quarters and rub them into the cut bread so that they deposit their pulp and seeds, leaving only the skin in your hands. If you can’t find large tomatoes that are that ripe, I find cherry tomatoes or mini plum tomatoes do the job.
4. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil to taste.

That’s it and it’s a surprisingly more-ish starter or snack with drinks.

The makings of a traditional Catalonian snack, pa amb tomàquet.

Calçots?

Calçots are a kind of sweet spring onion unique to Catalonia. In season from January to April, they are often served at raucous, messy festivals where they are grilled until they are blackened, peeled, rolled in romesco sauce – made of ground almonds, pine nuts, sweet peppers, garlic and tomatoes – and then lowered, pretty much whole into your hungry mouth. At least that’s the way they are eaten in Catalunya (Spanish Catalonia).

Calçots at La Boqueria, Barcelona’s main food market on La Rambla.

The messy approach to eating calçots. photo by Jake Bellucci, ccl.

We arrived in the region too late for these festivals and were first offered calçots at Restaurant La Chaumière in Font Romeu, a ski resort on the French side of the border. There they were eaten blackened outer layer and all. It looked a bit like charcoal but was actually sweetly delicious – in the same way that the blackened outside of a toasted marshmallow is sweet and edible. In another key difference, in France, they are often served on plates and eaten with cutlery. A lot less messy.

You may be able to find calçots in season in gourmet shops or markets that specialise in Spanish (not Hispanic) ingredients. Brindisa in London’s Borough Market sometimes has them, along with the romesco sauce that’s the required accompaniment.

This recipe, by Jenny Chandler on the Borough Market website, has everything you need to know about preparing and eating these unusual onions. You’ll need some clean newspapers for the prep and bibs to consume them. And, one word of warning, don’t bother trying if you can’t find or grow your own real calçots. I thought they looked like very fat scallions or green onions – the ones London shops now call salad onions – so I tried to use those. Not even close.

Read more about this Catalonian delicacy here,  along with a very good recipe for the sauce and some pictures of the messy way it’s eaten.

Trinxat

Before we crossed the border into Spain and Catalunya, we also sampled a hearty dish of trinxat at a Font Romeu bistro. This winter dish – perfect for skiers’ carb-loading or warming up after the slopes – is a mixture of mashed potatoes and, well, stuff. Wherever potatoes are popular and winters are cold, you will find combinations of mash and leftovers. In Ireland they mix mashed potatoes with cooked cabbage or curly kale, spring onions and lots of butter

Trinxat, a traditional Catalan dish that sticks to ribs. Ideal for skiers and winter hikers. photo by Ricardo Torres Kompen, ccl

and call it Colcannon. The English make cakes of Bubble and Squeak from leftover cabbage or Brussels sprouts, streaky bacon, mashed potatoes and goose fat. My grandmother used to mash potatoes with finely chopped hard boiled eggs and chopped onions softened in chicken fat.

Trinxat (pronounced treen -CHAHT) is that kind of dish. What makes it a true taste of Catalonia is the liberal application of Spanish paprika.

Trinxat looks a bit like a frittata but is basically a mixture of potatoes, cabbage and bacon without eggs.   Just mix equal amounts of chopped cooked winter cabbage (savoy or kale is good) and potatoes, Mash them together with one or two crushed cloves of garlic, plenty of salt and pepper, a good dose of smoked Spanish paprika and chopped bacon or lardons.

The purists leave it at that but when we sampled the dish, it seemed as though the chef had thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. There were peas, some carrots and I’m sure I spotted a few green onions too. Whatever you include, fry the whole lot- as either one, large frying pan-sized pancake or smaller individual cakes – in olive oil or bacon fat. If you can get pork belly slices, fry them first and then cook the trinxat in the fat they render, serving the belly slices alongside.

On to Catalunya