Soup is surely the most fundamental of all of the country dishes. But as basic as it can be—and some soups are basic, so much so as to consist on a few bucolic occasions of little more than herbs, olive oil, a pinch of salt, and hot water—they tend to be nourishing, filling, and adaptable to what is in season or in the pantry.
For Spaniards, sopa usually means a broth made from boiling some bone-in meat or chicken, maybe beef or salted pork bones, chorizo, a handful of garbanzo beans, a couple of root vegetables—turnips, parsnips, carrots—and fresh herbs. These are cooked with patience, and given time for their goodness and flavors to seep into the caldo, or broth.
And then some fine fideo pasta noodles are tossed into the broth. But that “filler” can be even simpler—just a spoonful of chopped hard-boiled egg and cured jamón to give the soup some body. At the fullest, the soup becomes cocido (see page 24), eaten in two or three courses—first the broth with some pasta boiled in it, and the garbanzo beans and meats served afterwards.
There are stews, too: dark and rich ones with beef (see page 32) or oxtail (see page 271) in the interior provinces, and ones with seafood or fish from along the coasts. From Basque marmitako (see page 31) to Menorcan caldereta (see page 28), these were once largely humble concoctions, made on fishing boats or back on shore, with the small, bony fish that had little market value but packed a bold punch of flavor. “These are what our wives had to deal with at home,” one elderly fisherman, lingering around the docks of a Mediterranean lonja (wholesale fish auction), told me once. “The better fish we sold to pay for the boat.” And while soups are most often first courses, such stews can transform themselves into main ones.
Cremas (literally “creams”) are usually a purée of vegetables—artichokes (see page 27) and wild mushrooms (see page 35) are two examples I chose to include here from the countless options. Perhaps these soups, more than their fellow platos de cuchara (dishes with spoons), echo the seasonal changes of the countryside, and reflect what is currently abundant in the garden, hills, or market.
For millennia, pulses have played a vital role in European civilization. They came largely from the east during antiquity—lentils from the Near East, garbanzo beans from the eastern Mediterranean—and their role in Spanish cuisine has been immense. And continues to be so. Filling, healthy, high in protein and fiber, and inexpensive, they form a cornerstone to the country diet, a foundation of countless meals, and are a staple in every sense.
The quantity and variety of pulses found in the Spanish pantry is wide. There is a range of white beans, from the large, meaty ones from Asturias to the tiny ones from the volcanic region of La Garrotxa near the Catalan town of Olot. There are various types of garbanzo beans, and two popular varieties of lentils: small brown Spanish Pardina lentils and larger, greenish brown ones called castellana or rubia castellana (“Castilian blond”).
