FROM CATALUÑA, WITH LOVE

I received a lovely gift from my friend Charlotte, who’s just returned from a week in Barcelona. Knowing my interest in all things gastronomic, she selected several Catalan cheeses and sausages to bring me. So, coincidentally, I am featuring the food of Cataluña for the second week in a row. But, no politics this time!

Clockwise from top left: Garrotxa goat's milk cheese; Formatge Neu, bull blanc, a type of butifarra sausage, butifarra de huevo, a pork and egg sausage, and, in the center, mató, a soft, creamy cheese. Hazelnuts also come from Cataluña.

There are three cheeses, Garrotxa, a goat’s milk cheese; Formatge Neu, a soft cow’s milk cheese, and mató, a creamy fresh cheese, and two types of sausage, botifarra d’ou or butifarra de huevo, and bull blanc. Both are cooked pork sausages that can be consumed without additional cooking, though they are best grilled. (A must alongside fire-roasted calçots, green onions.)  The bull blanc differs from regular white butifarra in that it is stuffed in a larger casing, while the one with eggs has a yellowish color.

Catalan sausages can be found in shops everywhere in Spain. However, the cheeses are not so widely distributed. Artisanal cheese making in Cataluña had almost disappeared until the early 1980s, when back-to-the-farm "hippies" began experimenting with traditional methods. Both the Garrotxa and Neu date from that renaissance. Garrotxa (a town north of Barcelona in Girona province) is firm, creamy, nutty (hazelnut) with a slight tang. Ripened for two months, the cheese forms a grey mold on the rind. The cheese is delicious on its own, with wine, diced into salad, grilled, melted. The Neu is soft, somewhat like Brie, and has a white mold rind. The mató is like solid whipped cream. An unsalted fresh cheese, it is usually served as dessert.

Here are some of the dishes I made using these ingredients.

Coca--a flatbread with toppings. This one has sautéed onions and three kinds of mushrooms and sliced bull blanc, a version of butifarra sausage.

Salad with black-eyed peas, green beans and diced Garrotxa cheese.

Spiced pears in cava with mató fresh cheese and hazelnuts.

Catalan Flatbread with Mushrooms and Butifarra Sausage
Coca de Recapte amb Botifarra

Make it a meal or call it a snack, flatbread with mushroom and sausage topping is sure to be a hit.

Unlike pizza, coca doesn't have melted cheese on it. Serve it hot out of the oven or room temperature.

The coca (plural is coques in Catalan or cocas in Spanish) is sort of a cross between pizza and focaccia. Made from bread dough, the coca is usually served room temperature, rather than hot from the oven. Barcelona bake shops sell it in huge slabs or in tiny, individual coques. Unlike pizza, coca rarely has cheese. The toppings can be a simple as a few strips of red pepper and olives or as replete as the coca de recapte, provisioned with “everything in the cupboard”. Sliced butifarra sausage is a traditional addition.

Use two or more varieties of mushrooms for the topping of this coca, wild ones if they are available. Some give off a lot of moisture, so take longer cooking than ordinary white mushrooms. I used white mushrooms, portobellos and oyster.

Bull blanc is a cooked pork sausage.

Any type of butifarra sausage works. I used the bull blanc.

Use any ready-to-bake pizza dough, home-made or store-bought. (A recipe for coca dough is here.)

Dough for 1 pizza
3 tablespoons olive oil + more for drizzling on top
1 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
3 cloves garlic, chopped
5 cups sliced mushrooms (about 1 pound)
Salt and pepper
Sprigs of thyme
6 ounces butifarra sausage, sliced

Roll or press out dough to make a rough rectangle (about 14 X 9 inches). Place on a lightly oiled sheet pan.

Preheat oven to 400ºF (200ºC).

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion slowly until it begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic and mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms are cooked, 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and thyme.

Spread the onion-mushroom mixture on top of the pizza dough. Tuck the slices of sausage into the topping.

Bake until the edges of the dough are browned, 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve hot or room temperature.

Bean, Black-Eyed Pea and Garrotxa Cheese Salad
Amanida de Mongets i Formatage Garrotxa

If possible, use a Catalan Arbequina variety olive oil to dress this salad.

Serves 4

Garrotxa--smooth, mild goat cheese.

½ cup cooked and drained black-eyed peas
1 cup cooked green beans, cut in short lengths
¼ cup chopped radish
¼ cup chopped celery
¼ cup chopped scallions
6 ounces Garroxta cheese, diced (1 1/3 cups)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or carrot tops
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar
Salad greens such as cress or rucola
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

In a bowl combine the black-eyed peas, beans, radish, celery, scallions and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Add parsley, oil, and vinegar.

Serve the salad with salad greens. Top with pine nuts.

Honey with Fresh Cheese
Mel i Mató

Classic way to serve mató fresh cheese--with honey and walnuts.

Place a dollop of mató fresh cheese on a plate, bowl or in a glass. Top with a spoonful of honey. Add walnuts.

Pears in Cava with Fresh Cheese
Peres amb Cava i Mató

Pears spiced with cinnamon and cardomom are cooked in cava (sparkling wine).

Cava is sparkling wine made by the traditional Champenoise method. Cataluña is not the only region where cava is produced, but it is the most extensive. The Catalan grape varieties, Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel•lo, give this bubbly a lovely flowery scent that combines nicely with sweet spices and fruit.

These poached pears can be made with “flat” cava, as the bubbles will cook away in any case. If you use a semi-seco cava, you will not need to add additional sugar. Use white wine if cava is not available. Cook pears until they are soft, but not falling apart, anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.

Serves 4.

2-3 large firm-ripe pears (1 ¾ pounds)
Lemon juice
2-3 cups cava
Strip of orange zest
2-inch cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
2 tablespoons sugar
Mató fresh cheese
Toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Peel and core the pears. Cut them in quarters or sixths, depending on their size. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Place the cava in a pan with the zest, cinnamon, cardamom and sugar. Bring to a boil, then let the syrup bubble 5 minutes. Add the pears and cook until they can be easily pierced with a skewer.

Remove the pears with a slotted spoon. Cook the remaining syrup 5 minutes more. Let it cool before pouring over the pears.

Serve the pears with the mató fresh cheese and sprinkled with hazelnuts.

More about Catalan foods:

Barcelona Alimentaria.

Sausage-Potato Cakes (Trinxat)

Catalan Flatbreads with Two Toppings (Coques).

MY HOMAGE TO CATALONIA

A unity dish--in Cataluña, everybody eats canelones during the holidays.

My homage to Cataluña is, as you might expect, a culinary one. I joined with millions of Catalans the day after Christmas in eating canelones. Yep, filled pasta tubes, a traditional Catalan dish for the day of San Esteban, December 26. 

Dinner might be the only thing the Catalans can agree on. Whether you’re an independista or not, speak catalan or castellano, canelones are on the menu.

Cataluña-Catalunya-Catalonia (the region of northeast Spain encompassing the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona) declared itself an independent republic back in October, following a referendum (illegal, according to the national constitution) in which a majority (with only 43 percent voter participation) voted to secede from the kingdom of Spain.

The declaration of independence precipitated a constitutional crisis. The central government in Madrid, which had tried to prevent the referendum, invoked an article of the constitution that allowed it to impose direct rule over Cataluña and call for new elections.

The elections took place right before Christmas, December 21. Voter turn-out was an amazing 82 percent. But, to the distress of the central government’s ruling party, the independistas still hold a slim majority (the three separatist parties won 70 seats in the Catalan Parlament; the combined unionist parties that want Cataluña to remain part of Spain won 65).

What happens next is unclear. Spaniards all—including the Catalans—are occupied with holiday festivities, so the crisis has somewhat receded. (The holiday does not wind down until January 6, el día de los Reyes Magos.) Then we shall see. Meanwhile, have another serving of canelones.

Canelones (canelons in Catalan) became popular in Cataluña in the 19th century. The filling originally was made with leftover cooked meat, poultry and sausage from the escudella i carn d’olla, the grand one-pot meal traditionally served on Christmas day (the Catalan version of cocido).

Pasta squares are rolled around a filling of three kinds of meat, then topped with béchamel sauce and grated cheese. Instead of truffles, I've added cloves of black garlic.

Not just for San Esteban day, serve these cannelloni any time.

Cannelloni, Catalan Style
Canelones al Estilo Catalan

Packaged Spanish or Catalan canelones are flat sheets (placas) of dry pasta, somewhat like lasagne. Two well-known brands are El Pavo and Gallo. After cooking (or soaking, in the case of pre-cooked pasta), the sheets are rolled around the filling. (If using ready-made cannelloni tubes, do not cook them before filling.)

The cannelloni can be filled and rolled and the béchamel sauce prepared in advance. Place the filled cannelloni in the oven dish with sauce, without adding the grated cheese, and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before adding cheese and baking the pasta.

Restaurant versions of Catalan canelones often are finished with shaved black truffles. I had no truffles, but studded the sauce with cloves of black garlic. 

Should you have more of the meat-chicken filling than you need to fill the cannelloni, spread it on toast, add a pickled onion and call it pâté.

Serves 4 to 6.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
6 ounces ground pork
6 ounces ground veal
6 ounces chicken breast, diced
2 chicken livers, cut in pieces
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons brandy or medium Sherry
Tomato sauce
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
¼ - ½ cup chicken stock

Packet of dry cannelloni pasta (20 sheets or tubes)

Béchamel sauce (recipe follows)
3 ounces grated cheese
Truffles (optional)
Pimentón (paprika), optional

Veal, pork and chicken cooks with brandy.

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion and garlic on medium heat until softened, 3 minutes. Add the pork and veal and continue sautéing 5 minutes. Add the diced chicken and sauté 5 minutes. Add the liver and sauté 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the brandy and cook 3 minutes more. Stir in the parsley and 1 tablespoon of tomato sauce.

Grind this mixture in a food processor. Place in a bowl and add chicken stock a few tablespoons at a time to make a smooth mixture that is moist, but stiff enough to be shaped into logs. 

Cook squares of pasta, skim out and place on kitchen towel.

Cook the cannelloni sheets according to package directions. (Add them one by one to a large pan of boiling, salted water. Cook 6 minutes. Remove them one by one with a skimmer and place them in a single layer on a dampened kitchen towel. Cover with another damp towel.)

Preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC).

Roll the pasta around a log of the meat filling.

Lightly oil an oven-safe gratin dish. Spread some of the béchamel sauce in the bottom of the dish. Working with one sheet of pasta at a time, place a log of the meat filling on it and roll the pasta around the filling. Place the filled pasta roll in the dish. Continue, using all of the pasta squares.

Nap the cannelloni with remaining béchamel sauce. If desired, make squiggles of tomato sauce on top of the rows. Stud with truffles, if using. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Sprinkle with pimentón, if desired.

Bake the dish of cannelloni until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Turn the broiler/gratin on high. Place the dish under the broiler until cheese is golden-brown, 2 to 4 minutes. (Watch carefully so top doesn’t burn.)

Béchamel Sauce
Salsa Bechamel

If making the sauce in advance of using with the cannelloni, cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Heat the sauce slightly and whisk it smooth before spreading in the oven dish for cannelloni.

4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated fresh nutmeg

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Stir in the flour. Cook it on medium heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. Do not let the flour brown. Whisk in the milk. Continue stirring or whisking until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cook the sauce 10 minutes.

For some background information about the Catalan political situation, read this article by journalist Lisa Abend:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/catalan-spain-referendum-independence-puigdemont/544307/?utm_source=fbb

DINNER FOR ONE—OR MORE

I may be dining alone on Christmas. One branch of my family lives across the pond in the US. My grandson in Spain goes to his other grandmother’s for Christmas. My friends are out of town. If the surf’s up, son Ben will be on the waves.

I’m fine with that. I’ll still make myself a lovely meal and open a bottle of good wine.

Festive dinner for one: stuffed pork loin with easy oven-roasted vegetables.

 Some years I plan a menu just for one—a single duck breast, a one-woman serving of shrimp. But this year I found inspiration at the local market, where the butcher was taking orders for lomo relleno, oven-ready stuffed boneless pork loin. He gave me some tips on how to butterfly the meat. He suggested including strips of tocino ibérico--ibérico pork fat--to help keep the meat juicy.

Pork loin is a versatile cut—scale it up or down. I bought a fairly large piece, enough for my dinner and a festive post-Christmas dinner when the family reassembles.

Stuffed Pork Loin
Lomo Relleno

I'm pouring a good wine--a fruity Syrah pairs nicely with pork.

Sliced pork loin shows nuggets of pork fat (or bacon) that help keep the meat juicy.

If possible, have the butcher butterfly the piece of pork loin for you (his or her knives are probably sharper than yours). If you’re doing it yourself, here's how. Place the meat fat-side up. Along one long side, cut horizontally almost through to the other side. Open the meat like a book. Starting in the center (the “spine” of the book), make a flat cut towards one outer edge, without cutting all the way through. Open that flap. Starting again from the center, cut horizontally to the other side, without cutting through. Open the meat up. You should have a more-or-less rectangular slab of meat consisting of four flaps.

Step 1: Place the meat fat-side up. Along one long side, cut horizontally almost through to the other side. Open the meat like a book.

Step 2: Starting in the center (the “spine” of the book), make a flat cut towards one outer edge, without cutting all the way through. Open that flap.

Step 3: Starting again from the center, cut horizontally to the other side, without cutting through. Open the meat up. You should have a more-or-less rectangular slab of meat consisting of four flaps.

Cover the meat with plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet to even out the thickness of the slab.

The ingredients given are for a 2 ¾- pound boneless loin. For a smaller piece of meat, cut quantities in half; for a whole loin, double the ingredients.

Serves 6-8 (or 1 or 2 with lots of leftovers).

Boneless pork loin (2 ¾ pounds), butterflied
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pimentón (½ teaspoon)
2 tablespoons seedless raisins
1 tablespoon brandy
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts
½ cup finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped carrots
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Grated orange zest
1/8 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
Pinch of fennel seeds
1 ounce serrano ham, chopped
3 ounces pork fat or bacon, cut in thin strips
½ cup chicken stock or water

The day before roasting the meat: Open up the meat and sprinkle it generously with salt and pepper. Rub pimentón on the inside (cut) surface. Roll the meat loosely and refrigerate overnight.

Bring the meat to room temperature. Soak the raisins in the brandy 10 minutes.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a skillet. Fry the pine nuts until golden and skim them out. Add the onions, carrots and garlic to the skillet and sauté slowly until softened, 10 minutes. Add the reserved raisins and pine nuts. Add the brandy, orange zest, rosemary and fennel. Cook 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add the chopped serrano ham.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Use sliced tocino and/or bacon.

Lay the meat flat, fat-side down. Spread the stuffing mixture over the surface. Lay strips of pork fat or bacon crosswise on top of the stuffing. (The 1/8-inch thick slices of bacon are cut crosswise into 2 ½ -inch long strips.) Roll up the pork loin around the stuffing. Tie with butcher’s twine. 

Brown the rolled loin before putting it in the oven.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy, oven-safe skillet large enough to hold the rolled meat. Brown the meat on all sides.

Add ¼ cup stock to the skillet with the meat. Place, fat-side up, in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the meat from the oven. Turn the meat. Add additional stock if the liquid has cooked away. Return to the oven until meat registers internal temperature of 145ºF, approximately 20 minutes more.

A serving for one, with lots more for another meal when the family returns.

Remove meat to a cutting board and let it rest 10 minutes before removing string and slicing. Add any remaining stock to the skillet, bring to a boil, scraping up the drippings. Spoon some of the juices over the meat.

More recipes for pork loin
Pork Loin with Fig Stuffing.
Herb-Marinated Pork Loin.