Pyrenean food is mountain food: slow-cooked, generous and built on what shepherds and farmers have always had, with Basque, Gascon, Aragonese and Catalan accents.
Dishes to try
Garbure
A thick soup of cabbage, beans and vegetables with confit duck or ham, the essential dish of Béarn and Bigorre.
Ossau-Iraty and mountain cheeses
Ossau-Iraty is a protected sheep's milk cheese from the Basque and Béarn mountains, often eaten with black cherry jam. Look also for cow's and mixed cheeses from the Ariège and Aragón.
Ham and charcuterie
Bayonne ham, the black pig Kintoa of the Basque valleys, and the noir de Bigorre pig of the Hautes-Pyrénées.
Lamb and beef
Barèges-Gavarnie lamb, raised on high pastures, has its own protected status. In Aragón, order ternasco (young roast lamb).
Trout and river fish
Mountain trout, often cooked with ham or almonds.
Stews of the valleys
Olha aranesa in the Val d'Aran, trinxat (cabbage and potato) in Andorra and Catalonia, and Toulouse and Castelnaudary's cassoulet just north of the mountains.
Basque specialities
Espelette pepper, piperade, axoa (veal with peppers) and gâteau basque filled with cream or black cherry jam.
Sweets
Gâteau à la broche (spit cake) in the central French Pyrenees, berlingots in Cauterets and crema catalana in Catalonia.
Drinks
Jurançon (sweet and dry whites from near Pau), Madiran, Irouléguy, Somontano in Aragón, Catalan reds, Banyuls fortified wine and the cider and Txakoli of the Basque Country.
Where to eat
- The best restaurants in the Pyrenees
- Weekly markets in every valley town
- Farm shops and cheese-makers selling direct in summer pastures
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