Inspired flavours: 5 delectable Portuguese dishes you have to try

You will find that Portuguese cooking is generally simple. The key lies in the different ingredients, how they behave together and how you treat them.

Officially the oldest nation state in Europe, Portugal has, over centuries of exploration and expansion, brought a global larder of ingredients to its shores – potatoes and sugar from the Americas, and spices from India are all still key to our eating habits. Added to these, Nordic preservation techniques account for the tradition of salt-curing fish, especially cod. The scaffold of Portuguese cuisine is built from these influences from abroad, as well as the country’s influence on the rest of the world.

For the most part of our history, we have been a poor country, with limited access to finer ingredients and a populace fed on the things the monarchy and elites rejected: stale bread, bad wine, vegetable trimmings and animal offal. But from such limitations, ingenuity inevitably develops, and some of our most appreciated and classic dishes are testament to this deep tradition. The country was, out of necessity, an early adopter of ‘nose-to-tail’ eating.

Despite a history of relative poverty, Portugal has always benefited from a rich and diverse landscape that encompasses fertile, flat farmlands and salt marshes. Just a short drive south from Lisbon, for instance, rice has been grown along the River Sado since the 16th century.

But the most consumed product in Portugal by far is bacalhau (salt cod), with numbers suggesting an average annual consumption of 6kg per person. It’s no wonder that its nickname is fiel amigo – ‘faithful friend’. It is said that there are as many as a thousand different recipes for bacalhau, and although I think this may well be an exaggeration, it cannot be far off the mark.

As my friend Enrico always says: “Portugal is the sleeping giant of gastronomy”. Time to wake it up!

Gaspacho Alentejano (Mário Ambrózio and Rafael Rodrigues at Raw Studio)

This ice-cold soup is the ideal refreshment for the boiling-hot summer days in Alentejo – it requires no stove heat in its preparation as all the ingredients are raw. Gaspacho varies depending on the region: finely sliced ham is one of the toppings in Mértola, olives are added in Sobral da Adiça. It is served in some Alentejo restaurants alongside a tray of fish

Bacalhau à Brás (Mário Ambrózio and Rafael Rodrigues at Raw Studio)

There are a thousand-and-one ways to cook bacalhau across Portugal, but bacalhau à Brás – made with salt cod, potatoes and eggs – is perhaps the most emblematic of all Lisbon cod recipes. In the 18th century it was known as bacalhau Mexido com ovos, and it was only in the 19th century, when the city’s Bairro Alto neighbourhood became a bohemian area full of bars and casas de pasto (taverns) that this dish from a tavern named Brás began to find national acclaim. The old and the more recent recipes are similar, although in the à Brás version the fries are very finely cut, almost resembling hay, which remains the most common technique used today.

Cataplana de peixe (Mário Ambrózio and Rafael Rodrigues at Raw Studio)

Cataplana is both a traditional Portuguese seafood stew and the name of the pot in which it is prepared. This dish – a rich, reddish mixture of different fish with potatoes, green peppers and onions – is today one of the Algarve’s main attractions. Its origins are still unknown, there being no official historical records of its creation, but given that Arab occupation of the south of the Iberian Peninsula and North of Africa had a big influence on the crafts of the Algarve for more than 500 years, both pot and dish are likely to link to this period. Cataplana, the pot, was once made of zinc, but is now made of a tin interior with a copper-hammered finish. There are still a few artisans who make cataplanas by hand.

Bife à Portuguesa com ovo a cavalo (Mário Ambrózio and Rafael Rodrigues at Raw Studio)

This and other recipes, like bife à Marrare, are some of the most unmissable Portuguese beef steak dishes, created in Lisbon’s cafés and cervejarias in the 18th and 19th centuries. ‘A cavalo’ means ‘on horseback’, an allusion to the appearance that the fried eggs placed on top are ‘riding’ the steak. It is usually served with fries and salad.

Pastéis de nata (Mário Ambrózio and Rafael Rodrigues at Raw Studio)

In her essential cookbook Traditional Portuguese Cooking, Maria de Lourdes Modesto said pastel de nata were ‘probably the most important Portuguese speciality ever sold’. Today’s recipes are adaptations of the original from the 16th century, when they were made in monasteries and convents. They should have a fragile, flaky crust and a not-too-sweet custard that is caramelised in spots. Visit neighbourhood pastry shops to find the best.