Local Dishes

1. pa amb tomàquet

   Bread rubbed with tomato

   Usage

   The emblematic Catalan dish: bread rubbed with a cut ripe tomato, then oil and salt. Eaten plain or topped with cured ham, cheese, anchovies or escalivada. Called "pa amb tomaca" or "pa amb tomata" in the western regions and around Girona

   Grammar Note

   "Pa" is masculine. "Amb" means "with"; its final b is not pronounced

2. escalivada

   Roasted aubergine and pepper salad

   Usage

   Peppers, aubergines and onions (sometimes potatoes) roasted, peeled and dressed with oil and salt; sometimes served with salt cod. Eaten as a starter or a side. Known as "espencat" or "esgarradet" in parts of the Valencian Country

   Grammar Note

   From the verb "escalivar", to cook in the embers ("caliu"). Feminine noun

3. esqueixada

   Raw salt cod salad

   Usage

   Desalted salt cod torn by hand and served uncooked with tomato, onion, pepper and olives. Originally a summer dish, now served year-round. The Valencian "esgarrat" is similar but uses roasted peppers

   Grammar Note

   From "esqueixar", to tear or shred. Feminine noun

4. calçots

   Grilled young onions

   Usage

   A January-to-March speciality. Sweet onions earthed up as they grow ("calçar") are charred whole, peeled and dipped in sauce. The meal itself is a "calçotada". There is an IGP, Calçot de Valls (Tarragona), created in 1995

   Grammar Note

   Singular "calçot", masculine; menus use the plural. The ç is an /s/ sound

5. salsa romesco

   Romesco sauce

   Usage

   A mortar sauce of garlic, almonds, hazelnuts, chilli, dried bread, nyora peppers, tomato, olive oil and vinegar. It comes from El Serrallo, the fishermen's quarter of Tarragona, where it was valued for keeping without refrigeration at sea. Served with fish

   Grammar Note

   As a stew it is a "romescada". The traditional dip for calçots is "salvitxada" (salsa de calçots), which is counted as a different sauce

6. xató

   Escarole salad with cod, tuna and anchovies

   Usage

   A winter dish of the Garraf and Penedès (Sitges, Vilanova i la Geltrú, El Vendrell, Vilafranca del Penedès, Calafell). The sauce is almonds, hazelnuts, nyora pepper, bread, vinegar, garlic and oil; the salad is escarole with salt cod, tuna and anchovies. The five towns share the "Ruta del Xató", running since 1997

7. escudella i carn d'olla

   Meat and vegetable broth with the boiled meats

   Usage

   The broth (escudella) from boiling meat, chickpeas and vegetables, followed by the boiled meats themselves (carn d'olla). Because it is slow to make it is now mainly a Christmas dish. It contains a "pilota", a large oval dumpling of minced meat, egg, garlic and parsley

   Grammar Note

   "Olla" is a cooking pot, so "carn d'olla" is the pot's meat. "D'" is "de" elided before a vowel

8. canelons

   Cannelloni

   Usage

   Italian in origin but thoroughly naturalised. The classic day for them is Sant Esteve, 26 December, when the leftover Christmas roast ("rostit") is used as the filling. A 2025 public vote made them Catalonia's favourite dish

   Grammar Note

   Singular "caneló", masculine; menus use the plural

9. fricandó

   Veal stew with mushrooms

   Usage

   Thin slices of veal stewed in white wine, finished with mushrooms and a "picada" of ground almonds and bread. Moixernons and cama-secs are the classic mushrooms, but ceps, oyster mushrooms or rovellons are also used. It appears in Josep Orri's cookbook of the early 18th century — town cooking rather than peasant food

10. botifarra amb mongetes

    Catalan sausage with white beans

    Usage

    A fresh sausage grilled, with boiled white beans fried in the fat it releases. A 19th-century classic and a symbol of Catalan cooking. Also written "botifarra amb seques"

    Grammar Note

    "Seques" literally means "dry ones" — short for "mongetes seques", dried beans

11. trinxat

    Mashed cabbage and potato with pork belly

    Usage

    A winter dish of the Pyrenees — Cerdanya, Alt Urgell, the Pallars, and Andorra. Potato and cabbage are boiled, mashed and fried with garlic and salted pork belly ("cansalada"). Puigcerdà holds an annual Fira del Trinxat

    Grammar Note

    The past participle of "trinxar", to chop finely, used as a noun

12. suquet de peix

    Fish and potato stew

    Usage

    Originally what fishermen cooked at home from the fish that had been damaged and could not be sold. Fish and potatoes in an earthenware casserole; now a signature dish along the coast. Sometimes written "cruet de peix"

    Grammar Note

    "Suquet" is the diminutive of "suc" (juice, cooking liquid) — a little sauce

13. bacallà a la llauna

    Baked salt cod with garlic and paprika

    Usage

    Desalted cod floured, fried, then finished in the oven under a sauce of garlic, paprika, tomato, bay leaf and white wine cooked in the same oil. Often named as a Barcelona dish

    Grammar Note

    "Llauna" means tin. The name comes from the deep-sided metal tray it is baked in

14. caragols a la llauna

    Grilled snails

    Usage

    Land snails cooked on a metal tray over coals or in the oven and eaten with allioli or vinaigrette. A speciality of Lleida and the western lands, celebrated at the Aplec del Caragol held every year since 1980. Also eaten in the Pyrenees, Andorra and Northern Catalonia

    Grammar Note

    Some dialects spell it "cargols a la llauna". Singular "caragol", masculine

15. fideuà

    Paella made with short noodles instead of rice

    Usage

    From Gandia in the Valencian Country. Short hollow "fideus perla" noodles cooked in fish stock with shellfish instead of rice. The story told is of a fisherman who set out to make paella and had forgotten the rice. A flat pan gives a dry version, a deep one a soupy one

    Grammar Note

    The formal spelling is "fideuada"; "fideuà" is the colloquial form and the one menus use. "Fideu" means noodle

16. arròs negre

    Black rice cooked with squid ink

    Usage

    Rice turned black with squid ink. It comes from the Valencian coast and is eaten both there and in Catalonia; usually served with allioli on the side

    Grammar Note

    "Arròs" is masculine, so the adjective takes the masculine form "negre" (feminine "negra")

17. mar i muntanya

    Surf and turf — meat cooked together with seafood

    Usage

    A Costa Brava category of dishes that puts mountain food (meat) and coastal food (fish or shellfish) on the same plate. Classic examples are chicken with lobster, chicken with langoustines, and pig's trotters with lobster. The phrase itself appears as a menu heading

    Grammar Note

    Literally "sea and mountain"; "i" is "and"

18. coca de recapte

    Flatbread topped with roasted vegetables

    Usage

    A savoury coca: thin dough topped with roasted peppers, aubergine and onion, plus herring or anchovy and fresh sausage. It belongs to Lleida and the western lands (Ribagorça, Noguera, Urgell, Segrià) and the Camp de Tarragona; inland versions use mushrooms

    Grammar Note

    "Recapte" means the provisions one has to hand — the coca of whatever is in the larder

19. samfaina

    Stewed tomato, pepper and aubergine sauce

    Usage

    Chopped vegetables stewed with tomato — pepper, onion and aubergine. It reaches menus as "bacallà amb samfaina" (salt cod) or "pollastre amb samfaina" (chicken). Called "pebrot i tomata" around Girona and "mullador" or "tomacat" in the Valencian Country

    Grammar Note

    First recorded in 1890, from the older "samfònia" (Latin "symphōnĭa"). Feminine noun

20. allioli

    Garlic and olive oil emulsion

    Usage

    Garlic and olive oil with a little salt (sometimes lemon juice), emulsified in a mortar. The traditional recipe contains no egg; adding yolk or whole egg is a later shortcut that remains contested in Catalonia. Served with rice dishes, grilled meat and snails

    Grammar Note

    From "all" (garlic) + "i" (and) + "oli" (oil). The standard spelling is the single word "allioli", though "all i oli" is also seen

21. crema catalana

    Custard with a burnt sugar crust

    Usage

    A milk-and-egg custard with a layer of sugar burnt on top. It was the sweet of Saint Joseph's Day, 19 March, and is also called "crema de Sant Josep". Documented in Catalan writing since the 14th century

    Grammar Note

    ⚠ Inside Catalan the dish is "crema cremada", "crema de Sant Josep" or simply "crema". "Crema catalana" is the name used from outside, but it is what tourist menus normally print, which is why the card uses it

22. mel i mató

    Fresh curd cheese with honey

    Usage

    Unripened fresh cheese ("mató", also "brossat") with honey poured over it — one of the emblematic Catalan desserts. Mató appears in the 14th-century "Llibre de Sent Soví" and carries the old name "menjar d'àngels", food of angels

    Grammar Note

    Also written "mató amb mel". "Mel" is feminine, "mató" masculine

23. panellets

    Almond marzipan sweets

    Usage

    Bite-sized sweets of sugar, almond and egg, eaten at Tots Sants (1 November) and the Castanyada alongside roast chestnuts and sweet potatoes. The pine-nut coated version is the standard. Registered with the EU as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed

    Grammar Note

    Singular "panellet", masculine; shops and menus use the plural

24. xuixo

    Fried pastry filled with custard cream

    Usage

    A Girona pastry, said to have been created in the 1920s at Emili Puig's shop on Carrer de la Cort Reial. Filled with pastry cream, deep-fried and rolled in sugar. Called "sussú" in Valencian

25. torró

    Almond nougat

    Usage

    Almond, honey, sugar and egg white, eaten at Christmas. Hard types must be at least 60% almond, soft ones 64%. Torró de Xixona and Torró d'Alacant (Valencian Country) and Torró d'Agramunt (Lleida) all hold IGP status

    Grammar Note

    Also spelled "terró" in some areas. Masculine noun

26. fartons

    Finger-shaped sweet buns for dipping in orxata

    Usage

    From Alboraia in the Valencian Country. Sticks of sweet dough made with flour, water or milk, sugar, oil, yeast and egg, eaten warm and dunked in well-chilled orxata

    Grammar Note

    Singular "fartó", masculine; sold in the plural

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