Aragonese cuisine
Encyclopedia
Aragonese cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients of cuisine in the Aragon
region of Spain
. These include roast lamb
(especially ewes); ham (jamón
) from Teruel
; olive oil
from Empeltre and Arbequina
; a local taste for unusual vegetables as borage
s and sweet varieties of onion
as well as wine
s from Cariñena, Somontano
(Huesca
), Calatayud
and Campo de Borja
. The region also features several interesting seafood dishes, including several kinds of crab paste, due to the superstition
that crabs help prevent illness; as well as often undercooked sea fish, steamed in the very saltwater they were taken from.
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
region of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. These include roast lamb
Domestic sheep
Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
(especially ewes); ham (jamón
Jamón
Jamón is the Spanish word for ham. In English it refers to certain types of dry-cured ham from Spain. There are two primary types of jamón: Jamón serrano and Jamón ibérico ....
) from Teruel
Teruel
Teruel is a town in Aragon, eastern Spain, and the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 34,240 in 2006 making it one of the least populated provincial capitals in the country...
; olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
from Empeltre and Arbequina
Arbequina
Arbequina is a cultivar of olives. The fruit is highly aromatic, small, symmetrical and dark brown, with a rounded apex and a broad peduncular cavity. In Europe, it is mostly grown in Catalonia, Spain, where it occupies 55,000 hectares, but it is also grown in in Aragon and Andalusia, as well as...
; a local taste for unusual vegetables as borage
Borage
Borage, , also known as a starflower, is an annual herb originating in Syria, but naturalized throughout the Mediterranean region, as well as Asia Minor, Europe, North Africa, and South America. It grows to a height of , and is bristly or hairy all over the stems and leaves; the leaves are...
s and sweet varieties of onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
as well as wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
s from Cariñena, Somontano
Somontano
Somontano is a Spanish Denominación de Origen for wines, created in 1984, and located in the county of the same name, in the province of Huesca, . It borders the regions of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in the North, Hoya de Huesca in the West, the Monegros in the South, and the region of Litera in the...
(Huesca
Huesca
Huesca is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the comarca of Hoya de Huesca....
), Calatayud
Calatayud
Calatayud is a city and municipality in the province of Zaragoza in Aragón, Spain lying on the river Jalón, in the midst of the Sistema Ibérico mountain range. It is the second-largest city in the province after the capital, Zaragoza, and the largest town in Aragón other than the three provincial...
and Campo de Borja
Campo de Borja
Campo de Borja is a Spanish Denominación de Origen for wines located in the Campo de Borja comarca, northwest of the province of Zaragoza...
. The region also features several interesting seafood dishes, including several kinds of crab paste, due to the superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
that crabs help prevent illness; as well as often undercooked sea fish, steamed in the very saltwater they were taken from.