One of Spain's original recipes for longer tables
A festival dish that's brought people together for centuries
My favorite dishes in the world are the ones that tell a story, of people, places, ingredients. Today I want to tell you about Pulpo a la Gallega, the very famous dish of octopus and potatoes from the northwest Spanish region of Galicia (“a la gallega” means “the way they do it in Galicia”). You might imagine an octopus dish is from the coast of Spain, and you would usually be right—Galicia is a rugged, beautiful coastal region with miles of coastline. But the dish actually comes from around the area around Melide, almost 75 miles from the coast! (The Galician port town of Ribeira, brings in the most fresh octopus in the country.)
So here’s the story. Historically, foods were transported from region to region on mule, and trading would happen at regular fairs and festivals where people would get together. And not only were they selling and buying their products, they were of course eating and drinking together. In Melide, there would be merchants coming from the coast of Galicia bringing seafood towards Madrid, and other ones coming from the southwest region of Extremadura bringing olive oil and pimentón de la vera, the amazing smoked paprika from the area around La Vera …all of this might make more sense with a map!
So as they met up, they would bring all of their ingredients together and make up new dishes that couldn’t have been made without this beautiful mixing of people. I’ll tell you something that I think is cool—the other name for Pulpo a la Gallega is Pulpo a la Feira or in Galician, polbo á feira—literally “fair-style” octopus, because it was made at these fairs!
So to me this is an amazing example of the power of food to create longer tables in a beautiful way across cultures and regions. This is how some of the most incredible dishes are created, just naturally through the the rhythms of life, the traditions and celebrations that bring people together.
Oh—and I know a lot of people don’t like to eat octopus…I don’t judge! After Paul the Octopus predicted that the Spanish were going to win the World Cup in 2010, we pulled octopus off of all of our menus in honor of his amazing abilities. There is a very similar dish in Galicia called Lacón con patatas, which is ham (not jamón) served the same way with the potatoes and pimentón…give that a try instead of the octopus if you want!
And of course, if you’re in New York you should definitely try our version of Pulpo a la Gallega at Mercado Little Spain! We are making it every day to celebrate the best of Spain, from the sea to the soil.
Pulpo a la Gallega
Serves 4 as a tapa