Simplicity is not always synonymous with traditional when it comes to recipes, but with gambas al ajillo, a handful of choice ingredients is enough to recreate one of Spain’s most famous tapas. Fresh shrimp is cooked briefly with garlic, dried red pepper flakes, bay leaf, and extra virgin olive oil in a preparation equally at home in minimalist and traditional recipe collections.

Paprika, parsley, and lemon juice are not even mentioned, but hopefully this serves as a good starting point for your own variations. Just don’t forget the crusty bread — gambas al ajillo is as much about the shrimp as the garlic-infused oil.

View Gambas al Ajillo - Simplest Garlic Shrimp Tapas Recipe »

Do you twist Oreos apart and eat the filling by itself? Doing the same filling finagling maneuver with Fig Newtons is a lot messier but I can’t help it. The is-it-cake-or-is-it-cookie sawdust exterior merely gets in the way of fig enjoyment by jamming itself in between teeth and up roofs of mouth. It’s nothing more than a bland delivery device for the sweet interior if you ask me.

I only want the fig filling. This classic Spanish method for preserving and spicing figs satisfies that need and soundly beats anything an automatic fig extruder can produce.

Unlike Oreo filling, which is basically shortening creamed with sugar, figs and almonds are the main ingredients in pan de higo so it also has a lot going for it in the nutritional value department. Both are packed with nutrients — figs are rich in fiber and almonds supposedly keep you smart. Compare with the effects of eating massive amounts of sweetened semisolid fat: sugar high, crash, guilt, and depression, most likely in that order.

View Pan de Higo - Spanish Fig Cake recipe »

The shape of a bread is probably the best indicator of its provenance and ingredients, short of having the recipe in hand. Shaped like a stick and scored decoratively? Probably a French baguette with nothing more than flour, salt, water, and yeast. Flat, wide, and heavily floured? Probably an Italian ciabatta, hydrated much more than your standard dough. Looks like a gigantic Hershey’s Kisses? Uh, wheat, rye, and cornmeal sourdough from Galicia?

So Pan Gallego de Centeno is not exactly iconic to most people outside of Galicia. What can I say? I like trying out obscure regional recipes.

View Pan Gallego de Centeno - Galician Rye Bread recipe »

I had my mind set on having some polvoron for the weekend but didn’t have any powdered milk, a key ingredient. Getting a polvoron fix is serious business for me but I’m not about to run to the nearest Goldilocks (there are none). Good thing I have a recipe for a similar Spanish treat called Polvorones Sevillanos that doesn’t require powdered milk.

Filipino Polvoron and Polvorones Sevillanos are two distinct things but do share similarities other than the name. The Filipino version uses flour toasted in a dry skillet and is pressed in a mold to finish while its Spanish counterpart is shaped into ovals before baking in the oven. The resulting tastes of the shortbread made from these two methods are unsurprisingly different.

Even with the different cooking methods, both share the same crumbly texture and instantly falls apart into a fine powder upon biting. One of my hidden talents is the ability to whistle with a mouthful of polvoron without spewing the buttery powder into someone’s face.

View Polvorones Sevillanos recipe »

Making quick work of huge disks of sourdough is easy with this well-loved Catalonian procedure for seasoning bread with garlic, tomato, and olive oil. There are hordes of fanatical pa amb tomàquet devotees just about everywhere, so I would think twice about referring to this as Spanish bruschetta.

View Pa Amb Tomàquet - Catalan Bread with Tomato recipe »