* Longaniza: These large, light-colored sausages with just a touch of pimenton seem a close relative of Italian sausage; their flavor, however, is quite different. Longanizas make good cooking sausages but more often they appear as an entree with vegetables and potatoes as an accompaniment. Of course, they make wonderful tapas and fillings for omelets.
* Morcilla: La Espanola prepares two Spanish blood sausages. Their morcilla con arroz (with rice) is seasoned in the manner of blood sausages from the Levente region around Valencia, with garlic and cinnamon. Morcilla con cebolla (with onions), a style favored in the North around Oviedo in Asturias, has a light sprinkling of cloves and cayenne. Both sausages contain about 60% lean pork--more meat than the morcillas served on Argentine restaurant parilladas --those are more like a soft blood pudding. Since the morcillas are precooked they need only be warmed and sliced and accompanied by bread for tapas or lightly grilled and served alongside other grilled meats with a good bottle of Rioja wine.
* \o7 Mexican\f7 -\o7 style chorizos:\f7 These are similar to Spanish \o7 chorizos frescos\f7 but less lean and much spicier with cayenne and oregano.
CURED SAUSAGES
In general the cured sausages are eaten as a cold cut and only occasionally used in cooking.
* \o7 Soria or Spanish Girl sausage:\f7 This variety originated in Old Castile around Soria and Logrono. Although actually a sausage, it resembles a gently seasoned lean pork loin with a concentrated meaty taste. The meat is diced by hand, seasoned and cured overnight to reduce its moisture. The mixture is then tightly packed into a natural, Portuguese net-like casings and air-dried for three months. Simply eat it sliced and in sandwiches.
* \o7 Pamplona style:\f7 The snap of garlic mellowed by a hint of \o7 pimenton\f7 makes this a good eating sausage. It is similar to salami. To get the right texture, the pork for these sausages is ground twice with a 24-hour rest period between grindings. "The meat should look like small grains of rice," says Faraone. A Pamplona-style sausage is cured three to six months, depending on its dimension.
* \o7 Cantimpalo:\f7 Like the Pamplona style, \o7 Cantimpalo\f7 is similar to a salami but is the thickness of a broom handle. The sausage is more highly seasoned with cayenne and cumin, and the beef and pork for its filling are ground separately--each to a different coarseness--giving the sausage its characteristic double texture. \o7 Cantimpalo\f7 originated in the regions that include Salamanca, Segovia and Valladolid. Some cooks there like to include it in cooked dishes but it must only be heated through to prevent drying out.
* \o7 Sobrasada: Sobrasada's \f7 deep-wine color comes from the large quantities of \o7 pimenton\f7 and cayenne used to flavor it. When it is whole, this Majorcan sausage resembles a salami, but its texture is soft and almost spreadable. Spaniards liken \o7 Sobrasada\f7 to a pate, though I find it a bit firmer, and recommend putting slices of it on crackers or bread and warming it under the broiler. \o7 Sobrasada's\f7 strong, earthy flavor goes a long way to enhance vegetables: Faraone recommends cabbage and cauliflower. Her advice: "The sausage should be cut up and only barely warmed to melting before adding the vegetables. Cook the cauliflower, with a lid on the pan, removing it to stir the vegetable periodically until it is tender." Many cooks like to add small bits of \o7 Sobrasada \f7 to their \o7 tortilla Espanola\f7 , Spain's famous potato omelet eaten at room temperature.
* \o7 Fuet:\f7 The name means "whip" in the Catalan language, and as you'd expect, it is long and skinny. This very garlicky dry-cured all-pork sausage originated in the Catalonian region and contains no \o7 pimenton \f7 but is lightly flavored with pepper and nutmeg. \o7 Fuet \f7 is loved as a snacking sausage or sliced thinly and sprinkled on salads.
* \o7 Salchichon del Vich: \f7 Similar to Italian Genoa salami, this is another cured sausage made without \o7 pimenton. Salchichon\f7 is deliciously rich, fatty and freckled with crunchy bits of black pepper and garlic, dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg. It is a favorite in Madrid for \o7 tapas.\f7
ADDITIONAL IMPORTED SPANISH FOODS
* \o7 Bacalao sin espinas:\f7 "It might seem strange," writes author Colman Andrews in "Catalan Cuisine," "that a preserved fish should have become so popular in a land where fish of the fresh sort is so obviously plentiful." \o7 Bacalao\f7 , like ham and bacon, remained a favorite food long after practical keeping qualities were its main attraction. When properly desalinated and sauced, \o7 bacalao\f7 produces some of the world's best dishes.
