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Spanish cuisine owes a great debt to Cristóbal Colón, Christopher Columbus to us, writes Paul Whitelock. This Italian explorer and navigator formulated a plan to try and discover a westward route to China and was hired by los reyes católicos, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, to carry out his plan. By accident in 1492 our Chris landed on the small island of Guanahaní in the Caribbean. He also visited Cuba and Hispaniola (the island which is now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic). He mistakenly thought he had found India and named the area the West Indies, as opposed to the East Indies on the eastern route to the Far East.
This accidental discovery led to the wider conquest of the Americas by Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands. This discovery of new lands led to the discovery of new fruits and vegetables native to the region. These were gradually introduced to Spain and then to the rest of Europe.
The nearly 800-year occupation of Spain by the Moors (Muslims from North Africa) ended in 1492 with the completion of la Reconquista when Spain took back control of the country. The Spanish Christians expelled most of the Muslims. This meant that a lot of the cooking techniques from this culture were disregarded, and so Spanish gastronomy was in need of a revival. The introduction of these new ingredients began to revitalise Spanish cuisine.
Nowadays, much of the Spanish diet, if not most, is based on a few ingredients, such as tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and cocoa, as well as wheat. It is believed that potatoes came into Europe through Galicia. This tuber had been discovered in Peru in 1532, but it would take some years for it to spread to the whole of Spain and other parts of the continent.
Today potatoes in Spain are one of the main ingredients of the most emblematic dishes in Spanish cuisine: tortilla de patatas, patatas bravas, papas arrugadas from the Canary Islands and many others.
Tomatoes in Spain were imported from Mexico, as they were an important ingredient in Aztec food. In Spain, the tomato was believed to be unfit for consumption, and it was given a medicinal and ornamental use as well. Nowadays we can’t imagine life without tomatoes: pantumaca, gazpacho, salmorejo, porra antequerana, ensalada de tomates and many other dishes use it as a base ingredient. The tomato also changed the gastronomy of other countries. What would pizza and spaghetti bolognese be without tomatoes?
Another very important ingredient was cocoa beans. During the 17th and 18th century chocolate in Spain became a national vice of the gentry. In the Aztec empire, chocolate was consumed very bitter, directly from cocoa and occasionally mixed with wheat flour. The Spaniards had the great idea of mixing it with sugar and it became the most popular drink among the wealthier classes. In fact, the Spanish aristocracy and clergy would drink it at all hours. Too popular in fact for the liking of the church, who decided to ban it!
Some of the smaller ingredients that made it across the ocean to Spain include paprika, which has since become one of the Spanish’s favourite spices. This spice is used in a number of dishes in Spanish cooking and is the vital ingredient for transforming chorizo sausages into their characteristic red colour. Before this, chorizo was generally a black or brown colour. It was in the 17th century that they began to combine the sausage with paprika, hence changing the image of the sausage forever.
As you have seen, many of the traditional dishes that we associate with Spain would not have existed if it were not for Christopher Colombus trying to reach China by a different route. So, thanks, Chris!
