The Foods and Wines of Spain by Penelope Casas

My sister gave me this book many years ago and I have learned a lot from reading Ms. Casas’ stories and recipes. Some of her recipes I have followed exactly, but most of the time I change a few things and maybe add new ingredients. If you are interested in cooking Spanish foods, this is a great book to begin your journey.

From the books cover:

 Here for the first time, the traditional cooking of Spain – with its extraordinary range of flavors, aromas, textures, and styles – is presented full scale in a book that brings to the American table a whole spectrum of new and exciting dishes. 

     You have only to sample a few of Penelope Casas’s more than 400 superb recipes to discover what Spanish (not to be confused with Spanish-American) cooking has to offer: the subtle combinations of spices and pungent flavors in dishes both lusty and refined; the opulent variety of foods from the mountains and seasides, from the tidal flatlands and sun-baked vineyards of a Spain that has been – until now – a relatively unexplored gastronomic territory. 

     And for this marvelous culinary adventure Penelope Casas is the perfect guide. Indeed, Craig Claiborne was so entranced by a meal Mrs. Casas served him (“one of the most memorable I have experienced in nearly a quarter of a century”) that he was moved to read her recipes and to write an introduction calling The Foods and Wines of Spain “a jewel to be added to the crown of culinary literature.”

     To search out the finest Spanish recipes, Penelope Casas traveled over 25,000 miles, crisscrossing Spain. Region by region (like Italy, Spain has no single national cuisine) she found local cooks, some still untouched by twentieth-century ways, and discovered their secrets, often putting to paper recipes that had never before been set down. She brings us savory meat and fish pies from the Celtic lands of Galicia; a legendary bean dish from the coastal mountains of Asturias; stuffed king crab, baby eels, squid in rich ink sauce from the Basque country; lobster and chicken in a hazelnut puree and the renowned romesco sauce of ground almonds and dried sweet pepper from Cataluna; varieties of paellas from the rice paddies of Valencia; simple but exquisite fish dishes form Andalucia; earthy breads from the wheat fields of Castilla; honey-drenched pastries from Extremadura; and more. 

     First, we are offered a generous sampling of some 60 appetizers or tapas (delicacies nibbled at bars from dusk until the late evening dinner); among them; little sizzling shrimp pancakes, mussels stuffed and deep-fried, turnovers with spicy fillings, chorizo puffs. 

     Soups include a cream of partridge; an onion and almond; the best of gazpachos, of course (one is made with grapes); and earthy meals-in-a-pot. 

     Sausages (among the glories of Spanish country cooking) with their subtle characteristics; some are with garlic and paprika, others scented with cinnamon and cloves, thyme and parsley. And you’ll find them almost as easy to mix as meatloaf. 

     Fish, poultry, and meat dishes (and almost all easily prepared) made special by unusual combinations of ingredients, from flounder fillets in almond sauce and spit-roasted chicken brushed with honey and cumin to pork loin simmered in milk and garlic, and potted lamb with lemon. 

     And in the last chapters of her book Penelope Casas presents the most comprehensive survey ever of the wide range of Spain’s excellent wines and sherries, which has been updated since publication of the first edition. 

     Throughout, Mrs. Casas shares with us her own enchantment with the Spanish people and their love of good living as she gives us the origins of a dish, bits of local lore, evocations of towns and countryside, descriptions of little-known, out-of-the-way eating places, as well as the more posh restaurants. For anyone planning a trip to Spain, this book makes an indispensable guide. 

     In sum, a one-of-a-kind cookbook to be enjoyed and savored – the only book you’ll ever need on foods and wines of Spain.