Thousands of years of traditions and cuisine have led to Bilbao becoming one of the world’s major culinary hubs. Here are some quintessential Basque dishes you must try when visiting the city.
Pintxos
Basque cuisine’s most famous offering. Essentially the Basque Country’s version of tapas, pintxos are bitesize portions of food, usually consisting of meat or fish, served on a piece of bread.
Pintxos are slightly different to the Spanish ‘tapas’ in a couple of ways. They are normally ordered separately, as opposed to being included when you get a drink, and they also tend to be larger than tapas.
The term ‘pintxo’ comes from the small toothpick used to skewer the food to the bread. Although not now a common practice, customers would take pintxos off the counter without asking, but keep the toothpicks to show the barman how many they had eaten when it was time to pay.
Pintxos are usually consumed as a snack or an appetizer rather than as a main meal. There’s also an important social component to ‘getiting a pintxo’. It’s typical for groups of workers to eat some mid-morning pintxos together around 11:00 AM. In the the evenings, friends will also often do a sort of ‘pintxo crawl’ in which they bar hop across a neighbourhood drinking beers and/or wine while eating pintxos.
Most bars in Bilbao will serve a wide range of pintxos. However, some do occasionally focus on one particular ingredient or a specific pintxo.
Bacalao al pil pil
A Bilbao classic, ‘bacalao al pil pil’ (cod in pil pil sauce) can be found on the menu of almost every restaurant in the city. It’s also often turned into a pintxo.
Pil pil is a slow-cooked yellow emulsion sauce that combines cod’s natural gelatine with garlic, olive oil and guindilla peppers. The video below shows how the dish is put together.
‘Pil pil’ is a reference to the sound the simmering sauce makes as all the ingredients are gently shaken together in an earthenware pot. This movement, said to mimic the rocking of a fisherman’s boat, is what gives pil pil its creamy, smooth texture.
Bacalao a la bizkaina
Another dish that originates from the province of Biscay, ‘bacalao a la bizkaina’ (Bizkaian cod) is a traditional salted cod dish made with a red choricero pepper sauce. In other parts of the world, this dish is some times cooked with tomato instead of peppers. However, in the Basque Country, most people would use choricero peppers from Gernika.
To make the dish, cod is fried in a pan with oil and garlic. After that the cod is removed and red onion is added to the pot along with the pulp of the rehydrated peppers. The ingredients are then blended together to make the ‘Bizkaia sauce’ and the cod is put back in to cook a little longer.
The video belows show renowned Basque chef Karlos Aguiñano serving up the simple but tasty dish.
Marmitako
Like the two previous dishes, ‘Marmitako’ has seafaring roots. Although this tuna stew is eaten all across northern Spain, it’s particularly popular in the Basque Country.
The dish consists of longfin tuna, potatoes, choricero peppers and onions stewed together in a closed metal casserole pot called a ‘marmita’. The Basque term ‘marmitako’ literally means ‘from the marmita’.
Here’s our man Karlos Aguiñano with his take on a Basque marmitako:
Red Bean Stew
Typical ‘comida de amama’ (nanna’s food), as a Bilbaino would say, ‘alubias rojas’ (red beans) are a favourite lunchtime meal in these parts.
In Bilbao red beans stews are normally created with beans cultivated in either Gernika, a historic market town close to Bilbao, or Tolosa, a town close to San Sebastian-Donostia.
There are a few variations, but this bean stew usually comes with pork belly, chorizo and black pudding (often referred to as ‘los sacramentos’ – the sacred ingredients).
Served hot straight from the pot, together with a nice chunk of bread, this is the perfect dish for a cold, rainy winter’s day in Bilbao.
Take it away, Karlos!
Pantxineta
We couldn’t finish without a classic Basque dessert. Bilbaino’s take their sweet food seriously! The city is full of world-class patisseries serving up delicious treats from carolinas, gateau Basque and of course Bilbao’s legendary ‘bollos de mantequilla’ (a sweet brioche bun filled with cream).
It was a close call but for this article we decided to go with ‘pantxineta’, a French-inspired puff pastry dish that originated in San Sebastian-Donosti at the beginning of the 20th century.
Pantxineta consists of layered pastry and thick custard cream topped with more pastry and almonds. It’s normally served warm, with a drizzle of melted chocolate, and sometimes a side dollop of vanilla ice-cream.
In the video below, Karlos’ sister Eva shows us how to make a perfect pantxineta.
Menu del día
A great way to sample Basque cuisine at a reasonable price is to get a ‘menu del dia’ for lunch. A ‘menu’ (as people here call it for short) is a three-course set menu. The first course is usually a pasta or salad dish, the second course is typically fish or meat with chips, whilst desert is often Basque cheesecake, cuajada (a sweet milk curd served with nuts and honey), yoghurt, ice cream or a patxineta.
We’ve written a guide with some recommendations on where to go to get a menu del día in Bilbao.
Cooking workshops in Bilbao
The best way to taste and experience the intricacies of Bilbao cuisine is with a local. If you want to do something particularly special, try taking a cooking class with a Basque chef. Here are some best Basque cooking classes on getyourguide.com
