Coca de cebolla is yet another regional Catalan variation made with slow cooked onions as a base.

You’ll find these delicious snacks at most bakeries throughout the Catalan region but here’s a recipe you can try yourself at home in a wood-fired oven

  • Coca de cebolla ( lit.onion flatbread) dough base is very thin and oily and the almost caramelised onions make this absolutely delicious as a lunchtime snack.
  • You can add anchovy and manchego cheese as a more filling meal.
  • Traditionally Coca ( pl ‘Coques’) is also made with wood roasted sweet peppers. Nowadays bakeries add all sorts of toppings like tuna, salmon, courgettes and tomato.
  • Make a pizza dough and when rested, stretch out into rectangles the size you want your Coca to be. Fry onions in olive oil or butter until brown, gooey and caramelised then leave to cool.
  • Spread over the stretched dough then add ingredients of choice- roasted tomatoes, roast red peppers, cheese, anchovy but keep it simple with a few choice herbs like thyme or oregano and salt and pepper.
  • Slide into wood-fired oven until risen and browned on top. Eat hot or cool completely for a snack the next day. Delicious!

Catalan cuisine is an interesting fusion of flavours some indigenous Spanish some inherited from its earlier Moorish period. The use of fruit in meat dishes almost certainly comes from this tradition. Historically the Catalan language was related to areas of Southern France like the Languedoc and Provence and is now found down the North East coast of Spain down to Valencia and over to the Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Minorca and Ibiza.