Andorran food, high-mountain cooking dish by dish

When someone asks me what people eat in Andorra, they usually expect a quick answer, as if it were Catalan cooking by another name. It isn’t quite. It’s the food of a high-mountain country that lived for centuries off what its valleys produced, and every dish shows it. Here are the classics, the local produce behind them and where I’d go to try them.

Cooking built for the cold

The tourist board sums it up neatly. Andorran cooking is heir to a centuries-old tradition tied to the flavours of the high mountains and to local produce, shaped by the seasons and traditionally self-sufficient. Over time it has absorbed influences from French and Catalan cuisine, which you’ll notice in the cannelloni and in some of the stews.

To stop it being lost, the country has done something I admire. It has published the Receptari de Gastronomia Andorrana, around thirty traditional recipes chosen from a culinary heritage corpus of more than 400 dishes built up through historical and scientific research. The government also awards a «Traditional Andorran Cuisine» label to restaurants cooking those recipes with local produce.

What are the traditional dishes?

First comes escudella, a hearty stew of seasonal vegetables and pork served in winter and at local festivals; at Christmas it’s made with pasta and called sopa de galets or sopa grossa. Second, trinxat, winter cabbage, potato, garlic and bacon mashed together and browned in the pan, which has its own page at trinxat.

Then there’s Andorran-style cannelloni, a take on the Catalan version filled with lamb, pork and chicken. Game appears at the start of the hunting season, such as hare or wild boar civet with vegetables and mushrooms, while Andorran-style trout, sautéed with almonds and ham, arrives with the fishing season. Salt cod, which reached the mountains preserved in salt along with herring and conger eel, is now served as a gratin with allioli.

Three things give everything else its character. Wild mushrooms, from ceps and saffron milk caps to other local varieties; quince allioli, which goes with grilled meat; and the charcuterie from the January pig slaughter, bringuera, donja, bisbe, longaniza and black pudding. In spring there’s bitter chicory salad, made with dandelion leaves, bacon and nuts. And snails a la llauna, grilled with spices.

The produce behind it

Behind those dishes are named producers. Veal raised in the country is sold under the Carn d’Andorra label with Protected Geographical Indication, marketed by Ramaders d’Andorra since 1999. Casa Raubert makes cow’s and sheep’s milk cheeses in Escàs, and El Batall makes organic cow’s milk cheese in Santa Coloma. Els Escaubells and Cal Jordi produce charcuterie. There’s high-mountain honey from several beekeepers, and an unusual local product, Nectum, a fir-cone syrup with more than 200 years of tradition.

To drink, beyond the wine from five wineries, which I cover in Andorran wine, the tourist board mentions ratassia de la Carmeta, a walnut and herb liqueur, & AND and Boris beers, Asgard mead and FORA gin.

Where to try it

The most direct way is a borda, where meat is grilled over wood and the menu follows the seasons. I explain how to choose one in borda restaurants in Andorra. If you’d rather have a restaurant with an official distinction, those holding the traditional cuisine label and the food ambassadors’ restaurants are in where to eat in Andorra. The calendar helps too, with the Escudella de Sant Antoni in January, the Ruta de la Tapa in May and the autumn food weeks.

Taking it home

Many of these products are sold in gourmet shops, at the Andorra la Vella tourist office and at the Mercat de la Vall, the old-town market held on the first Saturday of each month from May to October. Here’s the British twist. Under gov.uk’s rules for countries outside the EU group, which includes Andorra, no meat, meat products, milk or dairy may enter Great Britain. The cured sausage and the mountain cheese are therefore for eating in Andorra. Honey is allowed up to 2 kg per person, chocolate and biscuits have no restriction, and wine comes under your alcohol allowance of 18 litres of still wine. My ideal suitcase is a jar of mountain honey, some Xocland chocolate and a bottle or two of Andorran wine.