Can Recasens- proof that sometimes more is less

Can Recasens is a family owned restaurant located in Poble Nou. The initial business was a butcher shop, which was founded by the great- great- grandparents of the current owners in 1906 (their photo now hangs on the wall at the entrance of the restaurant). In 2003 the shop was transformed into the restaurant it is today. It is managed by Jaume and Teresa Recasens with help from their children and other family members. A small part of the business is still a shop, where you can buy meat, cheese, wine, and olive oil to take home.

The menu is simple but delicious. There is a variety of fresh salads, torrades, fustes, and fondue. There is also an excellent selection of wines and cavas. A torrada is essentially a large piece of bread topped with different ingredients (sort of like an open-faced sandwich). It may sound like more of a snack than a meal, but the size of the bread plus the toppings (anything from meat to cheese to anchovies) means they are actually quite filling. In Catalan, fusta means wood, and refers to a wooden cutting board. When found on a restaurant menu, a fusta is a wooden board piled high with different varieties of meat or cheese.

A good option are the set menus, which costs €22 per person and come with a variety of salads, meat and cheese fustes, wine and water, bread (the famous pá amb tomàquet), dessert, and coffee or tea. And for just two euros more you can have all of the above plus cheese fondue.

The restaurant has several different rooms, each with the name of an artist. The décor is quite simple. The walls are filled with photos and pictures, and there are racks of bottles of wine and olive oil. The feel is quite homey, almost as if you were having a meal in a small café, rather than in a restaurant with multiple floors. On the first and third Wednesdays of the month there is live jazz music, which adds to the ambience.

The service is excellent. On one occasion we had a reservation for 10:30pm and had to wait until nearly 11 to be seated, but we were given complimentary wine and fuet (a Catalan meat) while we waited, which more than made up for the inconvenience. The staff is always happy to explain the menu and give suggestions, which is very helpful for those not familiar with Catalan cooking.

The restaurant is always full, so reservations are essential, no matter what day of the week you go. Some patrons find that its popularity, combined with the fact that the tables are quite close together (and that the Spanish have a well deserved reputation for speaking loudly) means that the restaurant can be quite noisy. In fact, this is the number one complaint that patrons have about the restaurant. If you think this will bother you then try and get a reservation for later in the evening (10:30 or 11pm) when it will not be so crowded.

If you are looking for something particularly unique or creative this may not be the place for you. But if you want a place to try some of the best meats and cheeses that the city has to offer, sample a great bottle of wine, and relax in an informal environment, then Can Recasens has what you´re looking for. The items in the shop, such as a homemade olive oil, or a bottle of cava, also make great presents for those back home.

Address: Rambla del Poble Nou 102 (metro Pujades)
Telephone: 933 008 123
Hours of Operation: The shop is open from 6:30pm until the restaurant closes and the restaurant is open Tuesday to Friday starting at 8:30pm (last reservation 11pm), Saturday from 12pm to 5pm, and from 8:30pm.

10 Delicious Examples of Catalan Cuisine to Delight your Taste Buds

No holiday in Barcelona would be complete without a visit to a few of our excellent restaurants offering the world-renowned Catalan cuisine.  Although intrinsically Mediterranean, Catalan food is not all fish, but also contains a fair amount of meat and flavoursome and healthy desserts.

When eating in Barcelona restaurants, always keep in mind that while the Catalans enjoy their food, they also regard dining as almost a ceremonial experience, and take their time to enjoy their meals in relaxation, with no hustle or bustle. 

When they look at the menu, the visitor to Barcelona with no Spanish will likely need some help in ordering from the range of delicious dishes on offer, so to make that just a little easier for you here is my choice of 10 Catalan dishes, ranging from the luxurious to the rustic, that perfectly express the essence of Catalan cuisine.

MEAT AND FISH DISHES

1.  Fricando

Fricando is a succulent veal slowly cooked in a Catalan wild mushroom sauce (made of moixernons – otherwise known as St. George’s mushrooms), using a slow cooking technique that requires a lot of attention and a lot of time.  This dish is fabulous and represents some of the best of Catalan cooking.

A properly cooked fricando should use veal that comes from a particular part of the animal known as llata, a lean part of the shoulder often used for thin escalopes. The mushrooms must be moixernons.

Moixernons are small thin mushrooms with a strong but unforgettable aroma. These are used along with almonds, garlic, parsley and plenty of onion. Add water and stew for 2-3 hours, although it is worth the time taken because the end result is a deliciously fragrant dense sauce with ridiculously tender veal that melts in your mouth - but only if properly cooked and not rushed!

2. Esqueixada de bacallá

This is a typical Catalan salad consisting of desalted cod, torn into strips with traditional Mediterranean vegetables and some pepper. It is a summer salad, and simple to make. 

The cod is first desalted by steeping it in cold water for about 24 hours to remove the salt. The vegetables used are tomatoes, onion and olives, and the cod can be marinaded in chopped tomatoes and olive oil with vinegar if desired. Arrange the vegetables on a plate and place the cod strips on top, drizzling with olive oil. Hard-boiled eggs can also be added. It is easy to make but tastes delicious as a starter or a first course.

Esqueixar (in Catalan) means to tear and it refers to the way that the cod is torn into strips.

3. Butifarra amb mongetes

Butifarra amb mongetes is a classic Catalan dish of sausages with white beans, and represents the way that beans figure prominently in Catalan cuisine.

Butifarra (in Catalan) is a typical Catalan raw pork loin and bacon sausage, seasoned with salt and pepper.  There are many different varieties of butifarra according to where in Catalonia they are made. Some add eggs to the sausage mixture or even truffles, and the black variety (vaguely like black pudding) also contains onions and blood.

The ingredients are chopped and salted, and mixed together before being allowed to stand for approximately five days. They are then stuffed into the sausage casings and cooked.

Butifarra amb mongetes is very easy to prepare: the butifarra is fried slowly until cooked then the beans, which have been cooked previously, are lightly fried in the same fat as the sausage. The sausage and beans are served together garnished with garlic and chopped parsley. This is a popular traditional Catalan dish, and is simple to make but delicious to eat.

4. Escudella i carn d’olla

This is another popular Catalan dish served on the traditional Catalan holiday of December 26th, otherwise known as St. Stephen’s Day, Sant Esteve, or Boxing Day, although it is a good dish for any cold winter’s evening.

An escudella is Catalan for a bowl, and is a large stew-like soup cooked from a variety of ingredients, often using the left over meat from the Christmas meal, which are cooked in broth all day. In its classical form, this is a substantial meal, and includes ham and beef marrow bones, bacon, pig’s ears and feet, chicken, veal, salami, butifarra sausages, blood pudding and ground veal, all cooked in the one pot in a broth made from beans, cabbage, potatoes, parsley, thyme garlic, saffron and pasta.

Escudella i carn d’olla is cooked all day then eaten in two stages. The rich broth is taken as a first course along with the pasta, and then the second course consists of the meats and vegetables heaped on a plate.

The pasta used is known as galets, a form of shell pasta noted for their considerable size. Sometimes a third dish is produced, containing the vegetables separately from the meats.

VEGETABLE DISHES

5. Escalivada

Escalivada consists of a medley of grilled vegetables that have been peeled, deseeded and sliced into strips after cooking. Typical vegetables are red tomatoes, sweet onions, sweet red peppers and aubergines, or eggplants. Once prepared as above, they are seasoned and drizzled with olive oil and occasionally garlic or basil which can give the dish a distinctive aroma. 

The term Escalivar means to cook in hot ashes, which was the original Catalan way of cooking this dish, but modernity has taken over and the grill is now used. The dish is typically served with grilled meats, although many Catalans prefer to cook it in the oven rather than use a grill.  The vegetables in a well cooked escalivada should be cooked fairly soft.

6. Calçots

Calçot is a variety of garden onion known as Blanca Gran Tardana from Lleida. Calçots are milder and less bulbous than onions and more of a scallion than an onion. They are larger than spring onions.

A calçot is traditionally eaten in a calçotada, a gastronomic event held in Catalonia between the end of winter and March or April. It is a very popular event, and a great number of calçots are eaten. If you are in Barcelona during this period you are sure to able to attend one.

Traditionally, calçots are cooked by barbecuing them over a flaming grill and then wrapping them in newspaper in which they continue to cook, which makes them very tender. When served on a terra cotta roof tile they tend to stay warm, and when the newspaper is peeled away the calçots look black and unappetizing, but once you peel the black skin away - they are absolutely delicious! Particularly if you dip them in the sauce provided, made from tomatoes, almonds, garlic, pepper, olive oil and vinegar.  Called salvitxada, this is used as a delicious traditional dip for the calçots.

After the calçots have been cooked bread slices and strips of meat are cooked over the barbecue and eaten with them. Eating calçots can be a bit messy because of the ashes that cover your hands as you strip them off, and the sauce that tends to dribble down your chin, and many restaurants will provide you with a bib to protect your clothes. Make sure it is tight under your chin, or your next laundry bill might be slightly higher than expected!

It is well worth it, however, to taste this delicious example of traditional Catalan cooking.

7. Alioli

Alioli (from all i oli, Catalan for “garlic and oil”) is a cold sauce made by pounding olive oil, garlic and salt together using mortar and pestle until you get a thick, smooth-texture paste. The non-purists can use a blender but the traditional way does the best job. 

Egg is not traditionally used, although modern recipes can include a small amount of egg to enable the sauce to reach the right consistency quicker. It is not, however, made in the same way as Provencal aioli, otherwise mayonnaise, which when incorporating garlic is referred to as mayonnaise with garlic. Aioli is good with chicken, paella, potatoes, fideua and many other dishes.

BREAD

8. Pa-amb-tomaquet

This is a traditional Catalan dish, the name meaning bread and tomato. It is made from pa de pages (peasant’s bread), a rustic bread which is rubbed with fresh garlic and then with tomato, seasoned with salt and olive oil and finally toasted. The secret is in the tomato, which has to be over-ripe and squishy to form a good coating on the bread before toasting.

There is a thin-skinned variety of tomato, that is very small but very juicy, that is used for the purpose, although if you are unlucky, some restaurants make pa amb tomaquet using tinned tomatoes. This changes the taste significantly and it is not true Catalan pa amb tomaquet.

This dish can also be found in Tuscan cuisine, though made properly it is a culturally traditional dish in Catalonia that can be found in all restaurants and most bars. It goes perfectly with Spanish tortilla, grilled vegetables (escalivada), cheese, sausages and many other dishes. The Catalans eat pa-amb-tomaquet at any time with just about everything.

DESSERTS

9. Crema catalana

Crema catalana is Catalonia’s most famous dessert.  It is a rich custard pudding contained within
a shell of burnt caramel.

The custard is a standard vanilla flavoured custard, although chocolate can be used to enhance it, or perhaps citrus zest or cinnamon, although these enhancements are less traditional. The caramel is heated with a sheep brand or some other very intense source of heat, and is best if still hot when served. The contrast between the hot caramel and the cold custard makes a crème catalane what it is. It is normal served in individual small ceramic moulds known as cazuela molds.

10. Mel i mató

This traditional Catalan dessert consists of the mató (or requeson), a fresh curd cheese, along with a good helping of honey (mel) on top together with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts. Mató is not a cheesy tasting cheese, tasting more like a hard yoghurt, but the dessert is fabulously light, very healthy and simple to make.

These ten are ten of the best examples of Catalan cuisine, ranging from the complex to the simple, and from dishes more attuned to top class restaurants to rustic meals that nevertheless find a great deal of popularity in cafes and restaurants throughout Catalonia and Barcelona. Try as many as you can during your visit to Barcelona, and you will never want to leave.