Gastronomía
Beer, Spirits, Caviar, Salt, Vinegar, Nuts, Mushrooms, Rice...
The wide range of flavours of Somontano is complemented with high-quality foods based on local production.
Rice, table salt, balsamic vinegar, spirits or sturgeon' roes, are some of the possibilities with which to complete our gastronomic journey.
Finally, it is worth pointing out the wild mushroom harvesting. Roussillon, Amanita, Lactarius, Russula, Cortinarius, Mycena, Boletus among others, are picked up in pine and holm oak woods of Somontano mountains.
YOUR DATE:
- June: Polifonik Sound music festival in Barbastro.
SAVOUR an unique dish of rice, rabbit and snails, with author's wines aged in cask.
Vero and Cinca river basins and their tributaries have traditionally been a vegetable garden area, not only destined for self-consumption, but also as a supply for the local market and bordering regions.
Vegetable gardens of Somontano give us outstanding quality goods: thistle, borage, escarole, pepper, asparagus, pumpkin..., as well as pink tomato.
YOUR DATE:
- Fruit and vegetable market that is installed every Saturday of the year in the Market Square of Barbastro.
- Augost. Fruits and Vegetables Exhibition.
SAVOUR thistle with cod, with a sparkling expressive wine.
Traditional livestock farming has survived until now, so we find high quality products such as lamb meat of Denomination of Origin Ternasco de Aragón (about the lamb from Aragón quality brand).
Products obtained from pork, are also very emblematic in the Somontano, since there are several meat companies that produce cured hams and sausages, along with other small businesses from more handmade character, where typical products of the Matacia like spicy sausage, blood sausage and torteta are elaborated and marketed.
Chireta is a typical dish of Somontano, whose base is the lamb gut, hock, salt, garlic, rice... with which is formed a ball, cooked with vegetables. A popular celebration is made of its elaboration, in Pozan de Vero.
Flavour on low heat.
YOUR DATE:
- November: “The Chireta” Feast in Pozan.
- Cultural Days of the matacia.
- Bonfires of bearded Saints
SAVOUR
- Lamb with a special sauce called "chainfaina" with a young red of local grapes varieties like parraleta or moristel.
- "Salmorrejo" in a marinade, with a good red aged (crianza) wine.
The fields of almond trees in full bloom are one of the visual spectacles of the Somontano in spring. Its fruit is used to make “garrapiñadas, guirlache or nougat”, as well as other sweets that are more specific to Somontano, such as “ the Biarritz cake” or” the Flores de Barbastro”.
Flour, egg, sugar and pumpkin are the main ingredients of pastillo. Also the sequillos, farinosos or dobladillos, stuffed with nuts or honey.
Some traditional recipes, like crespillos, are made at home, and are not found in the market.
The floral base of the honey elaborated in the Sierra de Guara is thyme, rosemary and holm oak, made by beekeepers with age-old techniques.
Somontano jam is made from a range of high-quality local products, in a process whose base are community flavours and aromas.
Bierge's artisan ice creams have successfully made a headway on Somontano gastronomy by incorporating innovative flavours with km 0 products.
YOUR DATE:
- February: Candelera Fair in Barbastro.
SAVOUR a pumpkin "pastillo" with a white gewürztraminer.