A Guide to Spanish Food from La Espanola

Serrano Ham:  Many compare Serrano ham to Italian prosciutto, but its flavor is sweeter and nuttier and, as a rule, it is sliced thicker than prosciutto.  In Spain some of the best hams, including Jamones Ibericos and Jamones de Jabugo, come from pigs fed on acorns.  At the moment no one imports them, and La Espanola cannot obtain acorn-fed pork.  But their hams, made with lean, domestic pork and cured 18 months are very good.

The deli carries the ham sliced in 4-ounce packages, but it is preferable to slice your own from the whole hams.

For tapas, cubes of the ham are customarily speared on a wooden toothpick or hand-cut for pan con tomate y jamon (known in northeastern Spain, where it is a focus of local patriotism, as pa amb tomàquet): crisp bread rubbed with tomato, drizzled with olive oil and topped with the ham.  In the Basque country, the ham is an essential part of piperade; a dish composed of fresh-roasted sweet green peppers, onions and tomatoes cooked slowly together until they are meltingly sweet then swirled with beaten eggs to make a Basque-style tortilla.

Serrano ham hocks:  La Española also sells serrano ham hocks that add their robust flavor to "cocido madrileno," a sort of pot-au-feu dinner served in courses or with lentil and bean dishes.  Faraone uses the ham hocks in her spaghetti sauce.

Manchego cheese:  Once the cheese of sheep herders in the region of La Mancha on the Castilian plateau, Manchego's sharp, complex, buttery flavor is due in part to the Manchego sheep's milk from which it is produced.  Manchego will always carry a "denominacion de origen" label, assuring that only cheese made in the region may bear that name.

The youngest cheeses are cured 60 days; La Española sells the three-month aged cheeses that are still semi-soft and considered young enough for eating.  Manchego is typically offered with fresh fruit or quince paste, membrillo, and a chilled fine Sherry.  Older Manchego makes an excellent grating and cooking cheese and is made by simply keeping the wheels of cheese in a cool dark place, or even in the refrigerator.

Pimenton:  Sometimes called Spanish paprika, this is not the same as Hungarian paprika although it does come from a related sweet pepper.   Pimenton is indispensable for most Spanish cooking.

Spanish saffron:  La Española stocks one-gram jars of true Spanish saffron.  Its threads are of a dee-red variety with only a little yellow, an indication of good quality.  Toast the saffron threads in a dry skillet very briefly just before you use it. 

Lomo embuchado:  Faraone calls this cured pork loin "the Cadillac of the house."  Fresh eye of loin meticulously trimmed of fat is hand-rubbed with a mixture of white wine and spices.  The meat marinates in a cooler for about eight days, which draws off some of the moisture and allows the seasoning to penetrate.  After being packed in a natural casing it hangs in the curing room at 63 degrees for three to nine months, depending on the size of the loin.   The lomo is somewhat like a ham but not as salty and is best eaten as simply as possible.

SAUSAGE

La Española produces fully cured sausage (similar to salami) as well as semi-cured and uncured, or "fresh" sausage. 

SEMI-CURED SAUSAGES are dried only a few days, and must be lightly cooked. The light curing intensifies their flavor but the sausages remain juicy enough to impart a meaty, well-seasoned taste to beans, lentils or rice casseroles.  Even with lengthy simmering, semi-cured sausages won't dry out.

Chistorra:  The Basque region, known for some of Spain's finest cooking, not surprisingly produces the country's most flavorful sausages.  Chistorra, long, skinny pork links that mingle a deep smokiness with plenty of garlic, really pack a flavor punch. Basques eat these for breakfast with eggs or simply with sturdy country bread.  Like all the semi-cured sausages, Chistorra makes an excellent flavoring for cooked dishes.

Chorizo de Bilbao:  One of Spain's most popular cooking chorizos, this is another sausage originally from the Basque provinces and around Pamplona.  Its pungent, slightly firm meat is seasoned with the usual Spanish trinity of garlic, pimenton and pepper, but it's also laced with cumin and oregano.  Similar to but more robust than uncured chorizo fresco, chorizo de Bilbao stores well in the refrigerator and keeps for a longer periods than the fresh sausages.

Cantimpalitos:  Stuffed into small sheep casings and tied at 1-inch intervals, all-pork Cantimpalitos are the size of a single finger digit.  They are garlicky, rosy with pimenton, and have a light, smoky flavor.  In bean or rice dishes or sautéed with vegetables, Cantimpalitos make plump, bite-sized meaty nuggets.  Be sure to pierce each Cantimpalito a few times with the tines of a fork before heating it through.

FRESH SAUSAGES

Chorizo fresco:  Like chorizo de Bilbao, this is eaten throughout Spain and makes a wonderful cooking sausage.  Because it isn't cured, chorizo fresco exudes more of its fat- which isn't actually very much.  (La Española makes both its chorizo de Bilbao and chorizo fresco with less than 20% fat.)  What fat there is becomes the perfect medium for sautéing onions, garlic and tomato to make one style of sofrito, the all-purpose flavoring base used for hundreds of Spanish dishes.

Butifarritas:  Chubby, white and mildly flavored, these Catalonian style sausage, from around Barcelona, are the leanest of La Española's line.  They are reminiscent of Weisswurst but with a firmer texture.  As is true of many Catalan sausages, the familiar pimenton in the seasoning is absent.  Instead, the delicate flavor of butifarritas comes from a mixture of white pepper, garlic, and nutmeg.  Catalonians love them in bean dishes, turned over charcoal or cooked with turnips or cabbage.  These sausages are cooked at the factory and need only be heated through.

Butifarra Catalana:  This is simply a larger version of butifarrita that is often sliced and sautéed to serve with white beans or used in sandwiches.  The wide sausages are stuffed in plastic casing  rather than the natural casing that encloses butifarritas.  It should be peeled away.

Longaniza:  These large, light-colored sausages with just a touch of pimenton seem a close relative of Italian sausage; their flavor, however, is quite different.  Longanizas make good cooking sausages but more often they appear as an entrée with vegetables and potatoes as an accompaniment.  Of course, they make wonderful tapas and fillings for omelets.

Morcilla:  La Española prepares two Spanish blood sausages.  Their morcilla con arroz (with rice) is seasoned in the manner of blood sausages from the Levente region around Valencia, with garlic and cinnamon.  Morcilla con cebolla (with onions), a style favored in the North around Oviedo in Asturias, has a light sprinkling of cloves and black pepper.  Both sausages contain 60% lean pork-more meat than the morcillas served on Argentine restaurant parilladas- those are more like a soft blood pudding.  Since the morcillas are precooked, they need only be warmed, sliced, and accompanied with bread for tapas or lightly grilled and served alongside other grilled meats with a good bottle of Rioja wine.

Mexican-style chorizos:  These are similar to Spanish chorizos fresco but less lean and much spicier with hot pepper and oregano.

CURED SAUSAGES

In general, the cured sausages are eaten as a cold cut and only occasionally used in cooking.

Soria or Spanish Girl sausage:  This variety originated in Old Castille around Soria and Logroño.  Although actually a sausage, it resembles a gently seasoned, lean pork loin with a concentrated meaty taste.  The meat is diced by hand, seasoned, and cured overnight to reduce its moisture.  The mixture is then tightly packed into natural, Portuguese net-like casings and air-dried for three months.  Simply eat it sliced and in sandwiches.

Pamplona style: The snap of garlic mellowed by a hint of pimenton makes this a good eating sausage.  It is similar to salami.  To get the right texture, the pork for these sausages is ground twice with a 24-hour rest period between grindings.  "The meat should look like a small grain of rice," says Faraone.  A Pamplona-style sausage is cured three to six months, depending on its dimension.

Cantimpalo:  Like the Pamplona style, Cantimpalo is similar to a salami but is the thickness of a broom handle.  The sausage is more highly seasoned with black pepper and cumin, and the beef and pork for its filling are ground separately, each to a different coarseness, giving the sausage its characteristic double texture.  Cantimpalo originated in the regions that include Salamanca, Segovia and Valladolid.  Some cooks there like to include it in cooked dishes, but it must only be heated through to prevent drying out.

Sobrasada: Sobrasada's deep-wine color comes from the large quantities of pimenton and black pepper used in flavoring it.  When it is whole, this Majorcan sausage resembles a salami, but its texture is soft and almost spreadable.  Spaniards liken Sobrasada to patè, though I find it a bit firmer, and recommend putting slices of it on crackers or bread and warming it under the broiler.  Sobrasada's strong, earthy flavor goes a long way to enhance vegetables:  Faraone recommends it in cabbage and cauliflower dishes.  Her advice:  "The sobrasada should be cut up and only barely warmed to melting before adding the vegetables.  Cook the cauliflower, with a lid on the pan, removing it to stir the vegetables periodically until it is tender."  Many cooks like to add small bits of sobrasada to their tortilla española, Spain's famous potato omelet eaten at room temperature.

Fuet: The name means "whip" in the Catalan language, and as you'd expect, it is long and skinny.  This is a very garlicky, dry-cured, all-pork sausage originating in the Catalonian region and contains no pimenton; but it is also lightly flavored with pepper, and nutmeg.  Fuet is loved as a snacking sausage or sliced thinly and sprinkled on salads.

Salchichon del Vic: Similar to Italian Genoa salami, this is another cured sausage made without pimenton.  Salchichon de Vic is deliciously rich, fatty and freckled with crunchy bits of black pepper and garlic, dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg.  It is a favorite in Madrid for tapas.

ADDITIONAL IMPORTED SPANISH FOODS

Bacalao without bones:  "It might seem strange," writes author Colman Andrews in "Catalan Cuisine," "that a preserved fish should have become so popular in a land where fish of the fresh sort is so obviously plentiful." Bacalao, like ham and bacon, remain a favorite food long after practical keeping qualities were its main attraction.  When properly desalinated and sauced, bacalao produces some of the world's best dishes.

La Española carries quality boneless salt cod, some can be as dry as a board, like as an old packing crate. Theirs is slightly moist, pliable and cut from the thick center of the fish. It is creamy white rather than dusty gray.   Salt cod must be soaked at least two days in fresh water with a change of water several times a day. Longer soakings up to four days are even better.

Valencian Rice:  Round-grained and slightly sticky, Valencian rice is grown in the farm regions of Cullera and Sueca.  Rice, first introduced to Valencia by the Moors, is basic to its Middle Eastern-influenced cooking.

Just as you need Arborio rice to make a successful risotto, so a good paella requires Valencia rice.  Apart from paella, the region's hundreds of other rice dishes are traditionally cooked in an earthenware cazuela, glazed only on the inside.  Just about anything can go into a rice cazuela, from Valencia orange juice with almonds and raisins to an assortment of cockles and periwinkles.

Spanish olive oil:  As the world's leading producer of olive oil, Spain markets many fine, quality extra-virgin olive oils.  Of these, Ybarra and Carbonell are two of Spain's esteemed dealers.  La Española carries both brands along with several others.

Turron:  Another specialty with Moorish roots, turron is a chewy, crunchy nougat of honey and egg whites barely holding whole roasted almonds together.  At Christmas time, stores and shops throughout Spain are filled with many varieties of turron.  (The people of the Lavante region, who claim it as their own, say it is good any time of the year except after a visit to the dentist.)  The same dessert comes in a round form sandwiched between paper-thin waffle cookies.

Marzipan figurines:  These animal-shaped almond-paste figurines look like three dimensional cookies in that they have been oven-toasted.  According to Faraone, the 1890 brand sold in the deli is the best known and, some say, the finest in Spain.