Preserving the Best of Spain’s Summer

Back to school caught you by surprise this September? Do you already feel nostalgic for the summer? Here’s some good news: we have the key to make the season last longer, at least for your taste buds! If you wonder how, preserving is the answer.

To preserve a product – transforming it in a way that prevents it from decaying – ensures that it will be in an optimum state even if it is not eaten right after being cooked. In the case of a vegetable, it means to cook it when it is fresh, employing culinary techniques that save it from perishing. 

Preserving vegetables, as well as other seasonal products, has its roots in ancient culinary knowledge. Food preservation appeared for the first time in the Paleolithic era, but it advanced further during the Neolithic era, as it presented a solution to an issue that human beings faced at that time – and ever since. Once our ancestors settled down, we changed our eating habits: we moved from hunting and gathering to agriculture and, among many other things, we learnt how to grow vegetable and to how to harvest them when they were ripe. This was a great discovery, but our ancestors quickly realized that a solution to rot was needed: thus preservation and storing techniques arose. As with many other fundamentals of cooking, preservation techniques were created and developed by the demands of civilization.

Nowadays we have access to all kinds of fresh vegetables all year long. From prehistoric times we have gained plenty of knowledge on farming, but products in-season – asparagus in the springtime, tomatoes in the summer, squash in the fall – will always have an advantage on out-of-season produce. Also, vegetables that are prepared and eaten in their place of origin have the power to connect us with that land and its gastronomic traditions. Spanish cuisine, with its wide variety of homegrown vegetables, enjoys a long and sunny season. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and zucchinis, onions and potatoes, among others, are present in many summery recipes. Despite the general feeling that they are consumed best fresh in the hottest months of the year, they are also a treasure to keep, so Spaniards have long done so!

Within and outside of Spain, La Rioja is well known because of its wines, but the quality of its agricultural products is also remarkable. In farmers’ areas, the end of the season brings the smell of roasted peppers, kings of the summer. Families and neighbors prepare this product together so, as a result, there is an import social component in the traditional recipe. The locals cook their peppers on the street, with a shared fire made with charcoal or logs. They roast and peel the peppers when they’re cool, and then they place them together with their own juices and extra virgin olive oil in a jar. At this point they are ready to be hermetically sealed, perfect to enjoy through the fall and winter ahead.

Homemade preserved vegetables, or those purchased ready to eat – like La Rioja’s roasted peppers, Pisto from La Mancha, or Catalan escalivada – are summer gems that match perfectly with many other kinds of products. They’re easy to prepare as a perfect side for a main protein, and addition to a salad, as a starter to the meal, or combined with bread and cheese for an easy but tasty sandwich – like this simple, delicious Manchego grilled cheese with Escalivada. 

So next time you decide to open a jar containing preserved vegetables, remember this oldie but goldie lesson: through preserving, you are able to bring to the present moment, maybe a chilly winter night – the essence of past times, the warm and bright light of the summer – all in a bite.