Spain is country with a mixed and complicated heritage and Spanish cooking reflects this fact. While Spain is a Mediterranean country, and many Spanish dishes owe much to this, Spanish food also may include local foods imported into the country from Spain's previous colonies in the New World like beans, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. Other Spanish dishes draw on the nations Jewish and Moorish heritage - it was good to bear in mind that much of Spain was ruled by the Moors for over seven hundred years. Even the Reconquista (the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Muslims) has left its traces in Spanish cuisine - pork is favored in Spanish food, and historically was a political statement of Christian identity because it wasn't eaten by Jews or Muslims.
The most significant ingredient in Spanish cooking is olive oil, which is unsurprising when you consider the fact that Spain produces just about 1/2 the world's olives. But in the North of Spain, butter and lard are also used.
Other traits of Spanish food, include the far-ranging use of garlic and onions, the serving of bread and wine with many meals, and the consumption of fruit or dairy goods as desserts. One particularly well-known Spanish custom is the serving of tiny appetisers ("tapas") with drinks.
Some preferred Spanish dishes include:
- Gazpacho - A cold vegetable soup that is particularly popular in hotter areas like Andalusia. Historically gazpacho was made rancid bread, garlic, olive oil, salt and vinegar, but today, bell pepper and tomato are also frequently added. There is also a variation called &quit;gazpacho manchego&quit; which is served warm, and that includes protein (often rabbit) and mushrooms, and is rather more like a stew than a soup.
- Paella - A rice dish originally from Valencia. The main ingredients are rice, saffron and olive oil, and the dish is generally garnished with meat or seafood, and veggies.
- Chorizo - A tasty sausage made from greasy pork seasoned with chili and paprika. There are two varieties: hot ("picante") and sweet ("dulce"). Most kinds can be eaten cold, although there are some areas of Spain which produce types that need further cooking. Chorizo is not just eaten on its own, but is also utilised as an ingredient in other dishes.
- Jamon Serrano - Dry-cured ham.
- Fabada Asturiana - A bean stew that also contains black blood sausage ("morcilla"), chorizo and pork, and which is flavored with saffron and other seasonings.
- Olla Podrida - A rich stew with bacon, game birds or game, ham, meat and plants.
- Marmitako - A fish stew made with onions, pimentos, potatoes and tomatoes.
- Calamares - Fried squid.
- Pescato Frito - Soaked fish, battered and fried.
- Tortilla de patatas - An onion and potato omelette.
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