Ajuntament de Tortosa - Turisme

Local cuisine wisely combines produce from the land with those of the delta, the mountains and the sea. The local blood sausage, wild mushrooms, truffles and olive oil are very popular. It excels in desserts and have preserved specialties from Arabic, Jewish and Christian cultures

Among the wide variety of starters, dead olive pâté, monkfish soup, thyme soup, palm hearts and the empedrat tortosí are certainly worth trying.

For egg dishes: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, artichoke omelette, morenetes omelette, nest eggs and eggs with sauce.

There are many dishes made with eels, baby eels and vegetables, such as the fish stew. The "paella de l'horta" (orchard paella) is a mixture of meats (chicken and rabbit) with all kinds of vegetables, from which a very tasty rice is made, even though it may be a bit strong. Other ways of cooking rice are: Tortosa style, in a saucepan with squid, cod, kidney beans and rice with chicken. However, all restaurants serve other non-local dishes such as black rice or rossejats noodles. Among the variety of recipes with vegetables and cereals we should mention the porridges, green beans with ham, country stew, "drowned" beans, broth, cod with chickpeas and sauce, "recapte" (left-overs), the Tortosa noodles and morenetes soup.

Sea food is used for "mariscades" or seafood platters, sauces and fish stews. The abundance of fish has resulted in numerous specialties being created: skate with haricot beans, cod with sauce, cuttlefish with onion, cod balls, baked fish and salted sardines country style.

As for the meat, there is the Hispanic goat stew, rabbit with broken olives, "cassola gelada" (iced casserole), meat stew, Carlares ham, starlings with spring onions, poultry casserole and oxtail. Snails are eaten straight from the casserole, with "xocolata a la pedra" (hard chocolate) and salt and oil.

We should also mention the sauces: "Alioli" (garlic mayonnaise), "Romesco" sauce (almond sauce) and Tortosa sauce, and as accompaniment, the rostifaci, rovellons (wild mushrooms) and ratatouille. Bread is a basic ingredient for making fogassetes, clotxes, bread with wine and sugar and bread with oil and salt. The importance of baldana should also be noted, which is a kind of sausage made with rice, lean meat, pine nuts and spices and top quality local olive oil, both with the Baix Ebre Region denomination of origin.

Wine from "Terra Alta", rice and mussels from the Ebro Delta and mandarin oranges are some of the high quality products or with denominations of origin. Among the desserts some ancient specialties have been preserved. The cakes are a remnant from Arab confectionery; "coquets de sagí" or "coquets de Maria" are a Hebrew legacy and the "garrofetes" of Father Benedict are from the "Luna" papal court. Other pastries are the bilge, tortosins, mostatxos (moustaches), the congres, sultanes, farinoses, menjar blanc, sweet rice, and as for the sponge cakes: "cóc borratxo", apple cake, fast cake, honey cake, golden cake and the one with curd cheese and "camagrocs" and country cake. Nowadays queen soup and "Cucafera" are very popular; the latter is made with sponge cake, cream and kiwi. Quince syrup, herbal liquor, absinthe and the "clarea" (clear) are among the typical drinks.

GASTRONOMIC EVENT

The Food Fair, a Renaissance culinary event, held during the Renaissance Festival in the third week of July, is a moment for tasting recipes from yesteryear are now hardly ever used. For example, cod with honey or capers and parsley sauce, eggs with "lardurffes", meat "sarraÿnesqua" style or fig "burnia". For Festival Desserts there are those that are already popular such as "torretes", Renaissance "coca" or "prim" (thin) "coca", Festival Bread, the Emperor's "coca" and spinach "coca".

In late February the Gastronomic Olive Oil Event takes place and from February to May the Cultural and Gastronomic Rice Tour of the "Ebre Lands" and in March the Gastronomic Cod Event, in July the Cajun Food Fair and in November the Leftovers Fair.

Several fairs related to market produce take place in Jesús, Els Reguers and Bítem. The Oil Festival is held in Jesús on the last weekend of February, the Clementine Festival is held in Els Reguers on 31 October and 1 and 2 November and the "rovello" fair is celebrated in Bítem on the weekend before All Saints Day.