The cuisine of Tierra de Caballeros and Tablas de Daimiel is inspired by fresh fruit and vegetables and is influenced to a great extent by the area’s climate. The majority of the products used in its preparation are those that people have traditionally had at hand in their market gardens and farmyards: flour, potatoes, beans, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onions, melons, oil, etc. The province of Ciudad Real has a typical Mediterranean agriculture with cereals, olive trees and vines and its livestock is made up mainly of sheep. It is also a land of big and small game hunting, a land of stews and pistos (ratatouille).
The most common raw materials of this land form the basis of many typical dishes: flour has led to the creation of dishes such as gachas (thick flour-based soup), migas (fried breadcrumbs) and confites (sweets). From potatoes, we have machacón (mashed potato with red pepper and boiled egg mixed in), pote (potatoes and salted cod) and ajo de patatas (garlic potatoes). During the summer, the products of the market garden are used to make the incomparable pisto machego (ratatouille), asadillo (stew with tomatoes, roast pepper, garlic and cumin) and pipirana (tomato, egg, onion and tuna salad). Tizano is another dish, which is prepared with garlic, onion, oil and salted cod. .
Together with these dishes, prepared with typical products from the fields and market gardens, our cuisine is complemented by pork products, which in some towns are still prepared in the artisan fashion.
As for sweets, there is the pan de Calatrava (bread pudding) of Almagro, the popular bizcochá (cinnamon and vanilla scented sponge), flores, mantecados, enaceitados, rosquillas, manoletes (sweet pumpkin-filled pastry bun) of Valdepeñas, alfonsinos (sweet pastry) and the porrazos (crunchy meringue with almonds) of Daimiel.
