Spain

In Spain the main Christmas meal is Nochebuena, Christmas Eve, a dinner of several courses that often runs late into the night. It commonly opens with seafood such as langostinos cocidos or with a clear consommé, followed by a baked fish like besugo al horno or a roast of lamb or suckling pig, depending on region and family. Sweets include turrón and paper-wrapped polvorones. The season closes on January 6, when children open presents brought by the Three Kings and families cut roscón de Reyes, a ring cake hiding a figurine and a bean, often eaten with thick hot chocolate.

The Spanish chapter runs from bean pots to Carnival in Galicia. Fabada asturiana, white beans with chorizo, morcilla and the other meats of the compango, and lentejas estofadas are spoon dishes for the colder months, and porrusalda, Basque leek and potato soup, is made on cold days and with salt cod for Lent. Callos a la madrileña is the tripe stew of Madrid taverns, and migas extremeñas were once shepherds' food. Calçots with romesco are the center of the calçotada, a Catalan winter feast. Orellas de Entroido and filloas are sweets of the Entroido, the Galician Carnival, from jueves lardero to Shrove Tuesday.

The Spanish menu stays mostly in Catalonia and Valencia. It starts with Pan con Tomate y Jamón Ibérico, country bread rubbed with tomato, salted and oiled, with ibérico ham. The main course is Paella de Marisco, seafood paella built on fish stock, prized for its socarrat. The specialty is Pa de Sant Jordi, a striped bread of cheese, sobrassada and walnut doughs created in the late 1980s for April 23, Catalonia's day for lovers.

The Spanish menu belongs mostly to Lent and Holy Week, March 21–28, 2027. On Lenten Fridays and Good Friday, March 26, when Catholic practice asks people to give up meat, there is potaje de vigilia, a stew of chickpeas, spinach and salt cod, with soldaditos de Pavía, battered salt cod strips, and a wild asparagus tortilla. Torrijas are the Holy Week sweet across Spain, joined by pestiños in Andalusia and buñuelos de viento. On Easter Sunday godparents give mona de Pascua, a sweet bread topped with an egg, and Salamanca takes hornazo, a meat pie, to riverside picnics on Lunes de Aguas, April 5.