Spain

Buttery, flaky crust, simple toppings, and very riffable, this is a great appetizer or a light dinner with a nice side salad.

Polvorones are the crumbliest of cookies. Made with toasted flour, ground almonds, sugar and just butter to hold them together they melt, or more accurately crumble, in your mouth in a delicious way.

Recipes for Pre-Season Track Session in Spain 2022: Manchego Cheese Canapes, Baby Beet, Cucumber, Feta, and Olive Skewers, and a Spanish Orange Cake.

A classic orange sponge cake with a simple apricot glaze to bring out the tart and sweet flavors.

This tapas skewer is like a mini salad in each bite.

I love the concept of this canape because it lets you skip the cracker all together. Just pile your tasty flavor bomb dip directly onto a wedge of salty cheese and go for it!

These green beans are a great side dish or even a light meal. The final splash of vinegar and fried garlic add punch and flavor, the egg and bread cubes add texture and satiety, and the combination is a delicious dish.

This intriguing dish is simple but surprising. The late addition of sherry enlivens it from a simple roast potato side to something worth talking about.

This classic Spanish rice dish can be as fancy or simple as you want it to be. It can rich with seafood and be finished with mussels, shrimp, and scallops. It can also be made with freezer staples or even canned vegetables. It is equally satisfying vegetarian as it is with meats and seafood. It cooks surprisingly quickly and serves a crowd.

The Spanish version of a Gin & Tonic, is lighter, has more aromatics, herbs, and fun bits in it, and is perfect alongside some tapas any evening.

I’m sharing a simple Spanish Deviled Egg recipe with you that gets it punch from some smoked paprika and roasted red peppers.

Spain gets the double if not triple treatment each year thanks to two weeks of Pre-Season testing and the race at Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona. It’s a good thing there is such a variety of menu options and recipes to make! I have at least three cookbooks focusing on Spain, and still find delicious sounding things I have never tried before every time I open them.

Tapas are so versatile and ubiquitous, there is an endless supply of recipes, ideas, and flavors to choose from. I have loved exploring new flavors with recipes from Pintxos by Gerald Hirigoyen. For this menu we went for Shrimp topped Deviled Eggs and Sardine Rillettes.

Spanish cuisine is full of all kinds of homey, hearty, and filling recipes. This one hit the spot in what was a chilly February evening. Hope you enjoy the smells of the braising tomato sauce and the simmering meatballs. Together with a nice loaf of freshly baked whole wheat farmers bread and some sautéed swiss chard, this is a hearty meal.

This spread came together pretty quickly and hit all the right buttons for a little bit of finger food, a little bit of crusty bread to sop up some saucy stuff, and some veggies strewn throughout. A nice glass of Spanish Rioja topped off the evening perfectly.

A Spanish dinner party is never completed without an all out tapas platter. Bites to savor while drinking and talking with friends.

Guest Chef, Rob learned to make Paella from his father who in his army days was stationed for a time in Morocco. It was great hearing stories about food, travel, and family tradition. Rob now uses the Paella Mixta recipe from Saveur as a base recipe, as it is the closest he has found to his father's take on Paella. 

"This ritual of tomar un vermut—literally, “taking a vermouth”—is to Spain what grabbing an espresso is to Italy. It’s a social activity undertaken pretty much whenever over the course of daylight hours, preferably with a friend or three.

These dishes would warm anyone's bones. Both of Catalonian origin, the rice dish is emblematic of a common Catalonian cooking style where they freely mix meat and seafood, apparently this even has a name: mar y montaña (sea and mountain). And the greens were a perfect complement, though an "everyday first course" they added a special element to the meal. Followed up by a Vermouth Cocktail, this was a great foil to any poor weather. 

Tapas are well loved in Spain. And really, why not? Late afternoon or late evening with a glass of wine or sherry, these make the perfect accompaniment to good friends, a good drink, and a good time.

Part of the fun of cooking new recipes from around the world is discovering new flavors. Often I lean toward quintessential dishes. Sometimes even "the dish" of a country. And sometimes I just want to be inspired by the flavors, the scents, the look, or feel of a place and its food. 

This is my favorite go-to Sangria recipe because it is simple, quick, and it still tastes like the base wine and the tangy fruit it is composed of.

This race is all about the food and drink, though for me they all are. Paella and Sangria are like a match made in heaven. Easiest Sangria recipe ever, plus Paella covered in all the yummiest things: shrimp, clams, and mussels. And tapas to start off this food love affair.