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Conservas Alimenticas Hechas a Mano: Artisinal Preserved Foods
Appears in
By Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish
Published 2007
One of the great aspects of Spanish cuisine is the quality of its artisinal preserved foods. Harvested at their ripest, vegetables such as wild asparagus and piquillo peppers are pickled and decoratively packed in glass. They are appreciated as much for their flavour as they are for their aesthetic quality. A similar ethos is applied to seafood such as anchovies, mussels, cockles, tuna and clams — although seafood is more often packed in tins.
It is a testament to the professionalism of the artisan when preserved foods can be served straight from the jar or tin with unabashed joy. I can see no point in being snobbish about food from a tin — but it does have to be good. When the raw product is great and the artisan respectful — not only to the food but also to the consumer — you’re in for a treat. It’s not unusual for a tapas bar owner in Spain to serve pickled vegetables or fish straight from the tin — via an attractive plate of course. I encourage you to do the same. After a visit to the market or a stockist of good preserved products from the Iberian peninsula, go home, open up a jar and taste exactly the same taste that is being experienced in tapas bars across Spain.