Savor Spain

Welcome to 2025, hope you had a great holidays and plenty of energy to start this year.

We continue in our trip from Spain and today is the turn for Baleares, Balearic Islands or Illes Balears, an archipelago made of a group of islands and islets, being the most known: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza & Formentera.

Nowadays known for those awesome party vibes during Summer where thousands of people visit every year, the truth is these islands have a rich history and gastronomy that not so many people know (yet).

Like many places in this side of Spain, you can find traces of Phoenicians, Romans, Carthaginian, Vandals, Almohads, even pirates … Mallorca became its own kingdom after Jaime I conquest and after that followed the same fate as Aragon (Spanish succession war, etc)

Baleares is the third region in Spain with more tourists coming every year. You can find whole communities of German or British expats along the different islands.

In terms of Food, the gastronomy of the islands is pure Mediterranean and with influences from Catalan and Valencian cuisine. One of the most common ingredients is the pork, cerdo negro mallorquin, used to do the traditional sobrasada, camaiot, butifarra or xolis. Also olive oil DO Oli de Mallorca and wines like 4kilos Winery, cheeses like Mahon, and a selection of recipes with the seafood of the area, like Bullit de Peix from Ibiza, boiled fish with allioli, Flao a unique cheesecake, and of course: Ensaimada, a sweet brioche-like pastry made of pork lard and sugar, rolled and baked.

With this larder available, is not difficult to find great restaurants along the different islands, have a look at what Michelin guide recommends like Santi Taura, Zaranda, Maca de Castro, Andreu Genestra or any of the restaurants from Nandu Jubany in Formentera.

And for the recipe, something easy that I love to use either as a main course or as a garnish for fish or meats: Tumbet, a vegetable ‘lasagna’, or ratatouille version if you want, perfect for Summer.

Ingredients for 4 pax:

• 4 Potatoes
• 2 Eggplant or Aubergine
• 2 Zucchini or Courgette
• 2 Red Pepper
• 1 Onion
• 300 gr Ready tomato sauce (not ketchup, please)
• Olive oil, salt, pepper

1. First we wash and slice the eggplant, season with a pinch of salt and leave in a colander for about 10-15 minutes to remove their juices. After that we can dry with paper.
2. Prepare and slice the rest of ingredients: peel and slice the potatoes, zucchini, pepper, onion, etc. Make sure all the slices are approx 1 cm thin.
3. In a pan, add some oil for frying and turn the gas on and make it hot. Once it’s ready, we will fry the different vegetables by batches, optional if wanna use some flour or not, until they’re ready. Then we will leave them to rest and remove the excess of oil.
4. Once every vegetable is fried, is time to set the Tumbet, making by layers of the different vegetables and adding spoons of tomato sauce in between layers. Don’t worry if the vegetables are falling off a bit.
5. Reheat your tumbet in the oven for 5 minutes before serving.