(uplifting music) - Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by (adventurous music) - Aboard Oceania Cruises, our guests embrace a passion for travel.

And our chefs are inspired by the flavors of the world and committed to providing fine dining at sea.

That's Oceania Cruises.

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Your Way.

(lighthearted guitar music) - Since 1921, Season has brought you skinless and boneless sardine filets.

Our sardines are wild caught and contain essential vitamins and minerals for everyday meals.

Season sardines, rich in omega-3s and protein.

♪ And it feels good - Sunsweet Amazin' Prunes and prune juice.

(uplifting techno music) - And by Mutti Tomatoes of Parma, the Republic of Tea, and USA Rice.

(uplifting music) You may have heard Barcelona is packed with tourists and I have to admit, I'm one.

Drawn to the curvy wonders of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí and his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia.

- And it doesn't actually get more Barcelona than drinking gin and tonics in the shadow of the Sagrada Familia.

110 years in -- - Making.

I know.

What's the rush?

My guide is food journalist Matt Goulding, who shares some other Barcelona masterpieces.

- Roasted pork with romesco.

It's a Catalan red pepper sauce along with some gambas al ajillo, garlic shrimp, a classic Spanish tapa.

- Oh, this is so good.

- It's really what -- - And the shrimp are cooked perfectly.

In my kitchen, another unique Barcelona dish.

Fideo.

It's like a paella, but made in one pan with pasta.

Gaudi, gin, and gambas.

Today on Sara's Weeknight Meals.

Omnivore is a lush dive into ingredients that shape cultures on Apple TV.

It's a series co-created by this guy.

Matt Goulding is my guest, and he's sort of the Swiss Army Knife of food journalists.

(men cheer) After kicking around restaurants, he created the Men's Health series.

"Eat This, Not That," with millions of sales.

Guess that went pretty well.

- Yes.

- Then he launched "Roads & Kingdoms," an online magazine that looks at culture through food and travel.

(speaking in foreign language.)

- Anthony Bourdain liked it enough to sign on for a digital TV series, followed by award-winning food books on Japan, Italy, and Spain.

Matt knows something about Spain.

He married a Catalan, and they're raising their children in her native Barcelona.

And that's where we joined forces in the kitchen.

(uplifting music) Here I am with Matt Goulding, and I'm so excited to be cooking with you.

What are we making?

- Me too, Sara.

We're making roasted pork with romesco.

It's a Catalan red pepper sauce.

Along with some gambas al ajillo, garlic shrimp, a classic Spanish tapa.

But we're going to start with the sauce here.

So this is one large red bell pepper, four Roma tomatoes, a head of garlic, all roasted at 400 degrees until the skin begins - - Turning - - Blister - - Two times?

- Exactly.

This has probably been in there 25 minutes or so.

- Okay.

- On top of that, we're going to add another pepper.

This is called nora.

This is a dry, sweet pepper that we soaked in some hot water for about 20 minutes.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna peel off the kind of the hard skin on the outside and use the flesh inside.

- Oh.

- It adds, like, a bitter kind of sweetness of the sauce.

- All right.

All right.

- So while I do this, I'm gonna take this the back to the sink to peel.

If you wouldn't mind dicing up some bread.

We're gonna toast the bread and the almonds, which form the foundation of our sauce.

- Okay.

So I'm gonna get some oil in there.

- Exactly.

- A lot of oil?

- Quite a bit.

You know, this is Spain.

Spain - (Sara laughs) - Olive oil runs thick in the Spanish blood.

I'll say about a third of a cup.

(food sizzling) - And you just want these lightly toasted, right?

- Exactly.

Just a - - Mm-hmm.

- just a little golden color on them.

- Tell me about romesco.

- The sauce itself is super versatile.

It's a real workhorse.

- It's all purpose?

- It is all purpose.

I use it with asparagus, your other roasted vegetables, Brussels sprouts.

And it's really especially good with gold beans.

- We've got about two cups of cubes here.

- All right.

Got our peeled veg.

- Wow.

- Garlic and tomato.

- Look at how they shrink down to that much.

- It does.

- So I think we've got about quarter cup of almonds.

- And I'm gonna come in with our beautiful roasted vegetables.

We've got our pepper, (food sizzling) our tomato.

All right.

So sherry vinegar.

- Okay.

- Two tablespoons.

Because you had that rich, sort of olive oil, almond fatty combination, you want some of that acidity to cut through it.

- And sherry vinegar is the highest acid vinegar.

- Exactly.

This is smoked paprika.

- And we just want a teaspoon?

- If you didn't have those nora peppers that we soaked before, add an extra teaspoon.

- Okay.

- And then we're gonna season salt.

It's probably in the teaspoon range.

So we're gonna go ahead and transfer this guy - - Oh, boy.

Can I smell that.

- If it comes out a little thick, we're gonna add a little bit extra olive oil at the end.

- Okay.

- If you wanna do this on a weeknight and it's busy, you don't want to roast the peppers, you can take a jar of them.

You can buy - (Sara gasps) - Roasted, peeled red peppers.

- Oh, that's great.

- And a little shortcut there.

You know, there's ways to make this even simpler than we've done today.

And, honestly, this thing, this sauce keeps really well.

So if you make a big batch of it, you keep it in a jar in the refrigerator and it can hold there for quite some time.

(blender whirring) - Okay.

That looks good now.

- There it is.

Nailed it.

- Shall we taste?

- Let's do it.

- Oh, that is so beautiful too.

- The top part.

- You know what they say, you're supposed to eat the rainbow?

This is a good rainbow - - It's good for every day.

- Color.

(Sara hums positively) - I know.

You're telling me.

- It's done.

- Let's go ahead and put this in our beautiful little mortar here.

- Okay.

- Then we're gonna move on to the pork.

- Okay.

- So what we have here is a piece of pork that we have salted a couple hours ahead of time, Sara, just because - - Oh, you're, like, dry brining.

- Just dry brining it.

Right?

We want that season to go all the way through.

We took it out of the fridge so it's at room temperature.

(stove knob clicks) Turn this up to about a medium high heat.

You can do this on a grill.

You could roast this in the oven.

(oil sizzles in pan) We're actually gonna start it in the pan, Sara, and then we're gonna finish it in a 400 degree oven.

We've got a pretty good heat going here.

- Mm-hmm.

- Probably two to three minutes a side.

- So tell me about this fancy pork.

- So this comes especially from the breed of pork, the Iberico pig.

You may know them as the black-footed pigs that are used to make jamon here.

And it's an ancient breed, really well-known for being a fatty, tender cut of pork.

In particular, this is kind of like the upper class of that Iberico pork because it's fed on acorns.

- Ooh.

- And that gives them an incredible marbling, really beautiful fat, a sweetness to that fat.

It's also part healthy fats.

The Spaniards love to talk about the healthiness of this incredibly fatty piece of pork.

- Well, that is beautiful.

- And you can see, I mean, it browns up really nicely because there's so much fat in there.

And -- - And what part of the animal does this cut come from?

- So this is a presa, this, like, the breast, the shoulder, kind of coming from this area right here.

- Okay.

So - - In the case of being in the States, like - - Shoulder?

- You could do the shoulder.

If I was doing it in the pan, either a shoulder chopped, a regular, classic bone-on pork chop - - Mm-hmm.

- Or even a tenderloin.

All right.

- Okay.

- So I'm going to go ahead and transfer this guy.

(meat sizzling) Would you mind opening the oven for me?

- No, not at all.

(meat sizzling) We got this at 400 degrees here.

- Mm-hmm.

- I'm guessing with the size of that, it's gonna be 10 to 15 minutes more.

While the pork does its thing, let's do our thing.

We've got a bottle of cava.

But truly what you would do normally, I think culturally speaking, you have it before a meal.

You have it when you're sitting down.

If you're going for an afternoon drink here in Spain, you're getting sweet vermouth, a really cold beer, or possibly a glass of cava if you're in Catalonia.

But we're also gonna use this afterwards for our second recipe.

We use it for our - - Oh.

We're using it in a recipe?

- We're using it, well, just to give us an excuse to have it on the table right now.

- Oh, I like the way you think.

Okay.

So we'll keep that - - Beautiful.

- sort of handy for future reference.

- Now, salud, Sara.

- Salud.

- (speaking Spanish) - Yes.

(Sara hums positively) - All right.

- Very nice.

- This has been sizzling away in the oven probably about 10 minutes now.

- Okay.

- Look, I mean, this is an incredible piece of pork, so we don't wanna overcook it.

- No.

- You know, I think - I don't know how you are.

Are you a medium rare - - Yes, I am.

- Kind of gal?

All right.

- Mm-hmm.

- Also that's why we have a meat thermometer.

- Yeah.

- So we can just - - Give it - - know exactly what we're getting into.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

That looks good.

- All right.

135, I think, is, you know, what we're looking here.

- Carryover cooking?

- Exactly.

We're gonna let this thing rest because there's a lot of fat in here.

- Yeah.

- I think erring on the side of caution in terms of letting it rest for 10 minutes.

- Right.

- Because if you slice that thing open right now, you're gonna lose that river of sort of pork - - Yummy stuff.

- So in the meantime, we're gonna go ahead and do gambas al ajillo.

Gambas are shrimp.

Al ajillo means garlic based.

So we've got some nice medium-sized shrimp that have been peeled and deveined.

In the meantime, would you mind going ahead and slicing some garlic for me?

- Yes.

Slice it really thin?

- Exactly.

Nice, thin slices of that.

I'm gonna go ahead and start this pan in here.

We do a generous amount of oil because that is the basis of this sauce, right?

What we wanna do is basically start that garlic while the oil is still cool and we're gonna kind of bring that full flavor and infuse it into the oil.

- You want it in there?

- So if you want to go ahead.

- Yep.

- And work it in there.

- Yep.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

- This is called a guindilla.

- Ooh.

- It's a little dried pepper.

It's a little bit - - Can I see one?

- Yeah, of course.

- In my hand.

- Of course.

This is like a little cayenne pepper.

- Oh.

- So it packs a punch, right?

- I should say so.

- Okay.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna put one and your one in there as well.

- Okay.

- It's just gonna infuse the oil.

- I think we're ready to slice here.

- Okay.

- Do you want go ahead and do the honors?

- Yeah.

Okay.

Look at all the juice that's already come out of it.

Wow.

(upbeat music) - Oh, looks - - How's it looking?

- Looking good.

- Nice.

- Still very juicy.

- I'm gonna go ahead and just kind of spoon it right in the middle and then we're gonna fan the pork out over the top of it.

- Do you want me to just - - Yeah.

Why don't you go ahead and just layer those over the top of our beautiful romesco.

We got some asparagus on the side.

Just olive oil, salt, and pepper, little bit of lemon.

- Oh, this is so pretty, all these colors.

All right.

Now we go back to the shrimp.

- Okay.

So here we go.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Don't overdo the - yeah.

- That's right.

So, first, I'm gonna season it pretty aggressively.

And would you mind, in the meantime, grabbing that bottle of cava as well?

(upbeat music) Look, a classic way to do this would be with brandy or even sherry - - How about - - Probably gonna do about a quarter cup.

We're gonna do a good splash of it.

- Okay.

Just right now?

- Go ahead and give me that splash.

(pan sizzles) - Ooh, nice.

Oh, and bubbles.

- Give it a little stir.

- It smells so good.

- So, and that sauce is really what we're here for.

So I'm gonna cut the heat 'cause it's done.

So I'm gonna go ahead and divide the shrimp - - Mm-hmm.

- in these beautiful, little serving bowls.

And then we're gonna want some crusty bread - - Oh, yes.

- on the table - - Oh, yes.

- to sop up all of this beautiful sauce.

I'm going to hit you with some parsley.

And then - - Yes.

- And then we're going to go to the table.

- Oh, boy.

Much excite.

- Yeah.

Hit me with that green, and we're ready to roll.

- Mm-hmm.

Beautiful.

All right, let's go.

- I'll bring the shrimp.

You bring the pork.

- I'll bring, and we'll come back for the - - For the cava.

Awesome.

(upbeat music) - I don't know what to eat first.

- Go in for the shrimp because might as well get them while they're still kind of at the tail end of that garlic sizzle.

- Mm.

This shrimp is so good.

It's like ridiculously tasty.

- My main recommendation is - - Yeah.

Do this.

- taking a hunk of this bread and just letting it swim in that gorgeous pool.

- Of yummy stuff.

- Exactly.

- Oh this is so - - That's really - - Good.

- It's really what it's - - And the shrimp are cooked perfectly.

- It turned out well, I think.

- Mm-hmm.

(Sara and Matt hum positively) - All right.

Now, that's amazing pork.

Oh, I love it.

- One more thing for you Sara.

I've got a little surprise.

- Really?

- A little last parting shot from Spain.

It's not what you'd think, but I think you'll like it.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) - People find this shocking.

But the national cocktail of Spain is actually a gin and tonic.

- No.

- We call it gin and tonic.

- No.

- And it's had after dinner, typically.

But we're going to get a head start.

- Okay.

- Like a digestivo.

So you've had a big meal, like we've had and you want to just kind of relax and spend some time at the table or whatever with your friends.

This is what you do.

- Well, okay then.

- So I'm going to have you go ahead and peel off some big strips of lemon.

- Okay.

- Here in Spain, they don't want to have the whole fruit in there.

They just want to have the aroma.

Here is a big wine glass.

Get some big, chunky pieces of ice into there.

And then, you know, they love to kind of spritz the essence of that lemon.

We're gonna wrap that lemon.

We're going to - - That lemon oil from the skin.

- That's it.

Flavor right there.

- Do we need more than - have I got enough?

- Give me a couple more if you've got it.

- Okay.

I will.

I will.

- And in this case, you know, (Sara exhales) you go into your average bar in Spain and you can find 15 or 20 different gins.

- Really?

- Maybe you'll find two or three different kinds of tonic.

And the idea is you kind of play around the different flavor combinations.

- Okay, there we go.

Oh, that's my - - Beautiful.

- best one yet.

Woo woo.

- All right.

So we got the essence of lemon in here.

You know, you'll find everything from cucumbers to rosemary to pink peppercorns, to star anise.

In this case, the gin that we're using is made here in Barcelona.

It's a very kind of fragrant Mediterranean classic flavor.

So it's got, like, rosemary and thyme and black olive.

- What?

- It's kinda the opposite of, like, your London dry gin.

- Yeah.

- Then I'll go ahead and top that with the tonic.

And then if you'll do me a favor, Sara, pull off a couple of nice, beautiful leaves.

- Single leaves?

- Single leaves of basil.

- Big ones?

Little ones?

- The big one to start.

And then maybe we can garish with a little one.

- Okay.

I'm intrigued.

- You can muddle if you want to do that.

But, you know, in this case, honestly, I think you're just kind of floating in on top.

You want to kind of bruise it a bit so we can get some - - Okay.

- Of the aromas of it.

- Mm-hmm.

And then just drop it in?

- And drop it in.

- Ooh.

I love basil.

- Very nice.

- Basil is my favorite herb.

- Is it really?

- Yep.

Absolutely.

Hands down.

- You're in luck.

- I'll do the next - - One more on this other side here.

- Okay.

Got it.

- But, you know, what's cool about this is you can do it at home and kind of make your own little DIY gin and tonic set up.

- And so this is our little garnish?

- I think the only way to do it is on a terrace with the Sagrada Familia looming over your shoulder.

- Yes.

I should say so.

- That's it.

- Yes.

- Salud.

- Okay.

Shall we go?

(melodic European guitar music) Ooh.

This is something else.

- Right?

- I mean, I've never had a gin and tonic I would say that is this robust.

- Beautiful thing.

Seriously, when I have parties, like, I'll just bring out a tray with, like, 10 different aromatics.

- And let people do their own?

- A couple different gins, couple different tonics.

Big, huge bowl of ice.

- I feel like this is so Barcelona, isn't it?

- I mean, it doesn't actually get more Barcelona than drinking gin and tonics in the shadow of the Sagrada Familia.

110 years in the making.

- Making.

I know.

What's rush?

- We're almost there.

- Yes.

- Almost there.

- Yes.

Well, at any rate.

Thank you.

- Salud, Sara.

So lovely to have you here.

(funky European music) - This dish I'm about to make is for Sunday 'cause it's a little more complicated.

There's many different parts.

It's called fideos.

It's named after the noodles that are the star of the show.

It's like a paella but made in one pan with pasta.

So let me start by getting the shrimp.

There's many different elements.

It's a one-dish meal, maybe crusty bread or a salad on the side.

But I want to flavor my shrimp, which are going to go in later.

So there's my shrimp, and I'm going to chop up some garlic.

We need about four teaspoons.

And, generally, one garlic clove equals one teaspoon.

If you can't find these thin noodles, you can certainly use spaghettini, thin spaghetti.

(knife chopping) And I am going to add about a teaspoon.

Here's my shrimp.

Some salt and pepper in these large shrimp.

And the reason I like the large shrimp is 'cause I don't want them to cook too much.

They go in at the very end.

And the larger the better because smaller ones would cook too fast.

We're seasoning them so that it has time to pick up the flavor of the salt and the garlic and the pepper.

And we're just going to set it aside and move on to the noodles.

So this is eight ounces of noodles and I'm going to break them into two or three-inch lengths.

You just actually just have fun and break them up.

We're starting in a cold pan.

So now I'm going to add two teaspoons of olive oil.

So what I'm going to now is cook this on medium.

I just turned on the flame, and I'm going to keep an eyeball on it while I prepare the rest of the ingredients.

And it's going to get very toasty and very brown, and it can go quite fast.

So keep an eye on it.

All right.

Here we have chorizo.

I've already peeled two.

This is Spanish chorizo.

Now, I never met a chorizo I didn't like, but for the purposes of this recipe, I want to go with the Spanish.

There's many wonderful brands out there.

(upbeat European music) Boy, I am smelling that.

Smelling toasty.

Just beginning.

Yeah.

There we go.

You can see it on the bottom.

This is not something you walk away.

Don't answer the phone.

If you can see, some parts are getting a little dark.

Just get them out.

Oh, I wish you could smell this.

It's, like, who knew that toasted dry pasta would smell so good?

It does.

It smells like toasted bread.

Yeah.

Just about there.

I've got a little bit of oil left, but we're going to add a little more.

Fat is a conductor of flavor.

Don't leave it out of the recipe.

Two tablespoons.

That's exactly two tablespoon.

So I'm going to put the chorizo in, but I only want to cook it for about two or three minutes.

Oh, wow.

I'm smelling the paprika.

Fantastic.

(upbeat music) And the onion gets finally chopped.

And we're going to brown it.

When you brown an onion slowly, it also adds depth of flavor.

Okay.

We want about a cup.

One medium onion equals about one cup chopped.

All right.

These are looking good.

You don't want too much color on there.

So we're going to add this to our fideo.

And then our onions are going in.

Oh, this smells so good.

I wish you could smell it.

Notice it's not smoking 'cause I made sure the temperature was right.

In go the onions.

These will take about 8 to 10 minutes to get nice and golden.

And then we're going to add the rest of our garlic.

(food sizzling) And this is on, like, a medium heat.

I'm just going to check out them every so often, but meanwhile, I'm just gonna tidy up a bit.

(lighthearted music) Those are lovely and brown.

So now I'm going to add my garlic.

This is three teaspoons.

They're going to need three teaspoons.

And this only takes about a minute.

We don't want to get the garlic brown.

If it gets brown, it gets bitter.

So I've got some marinara sauce here.

And if you want to make your own, I have a wonderful recipe that we're going to put on the website.

Only takes 20 minutes or you can just buy your favorite.

In goes our marinara.

And this is going to simmer for about four minutes.

This is pretty thick, this marinara.

So we may not need that long.

Okay.

So let's start with our paprika.

I'm going to add a teaspoon of the smoked and a teaspoon of the sweet.

We want to bring it alive by getting it in there with a little liquid.

This is all about building layers of flavor.

And now in goes everything else.

I think I'm going to add the fideos first, and then we'll get all the liquid in.

So half a cup of white wine.

That adds nice acidity.

And our chicken broth.

Now a little miracle happens in here 'cause you're, like, wait a second.

Aren't we cooking the fideos, the pasta, in a whole lot of boiling water?

Which is what we've been taught to do when you're making Italian pasta.

Trust me, it's going to be just beautiful.

It cooks in here.

Everything comes together.

So we're going to bring it up to a boil, turn it down to a simmer and stir it every so often.

(funky upbeat music) Okay.

That's come up to a boil.

I'm going to turn that down to simmer for about 10 minutes and go out and get some flowers.

(upbeat guitar music) Okay.

So I'm setting that to broil, which is how we finish the dish.

And, oh, that looks perfect.

You see it's reduced.

I've given it a stir so often.

And you can see how tender the noodles are.

So in goes some peas, about two cups.

And these were frozen, defrosted peas.

So, essentially, frozen peas are really blanched and cooked.

They're good to go.

You could eat them raw even.

And we're just - let me just stir those down.

And then the shrimp gets tucked in on the top.

And how it gets cooked is just by the heat of the broiler.

(upbeat music) And it's so pretty when you take it out.

While it's broiling, which takes only about four minutes, I'm going to make the garlic mayonnaise, which is the last touch.

So it's very simple.

It's not rocket science, unless you make your own mayonnaise, in which case good for you.

That's fantastic.

We need about three quarters of a cup of mayonnaise.

I'm just going to eyeball it.

And this is just regular store bought, you know, we all have our favorite brands.

And then we're going to put some garlic, finely minced, about a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half.

I like garlic, so I'm going to put a lot of in.

And then some lemon.

And that is my very complicated garlic mayonnaise.

Here we go.

I'm going to put this in a little bowl and this is going to be on the table out there.

And we're going to dollop it on top of our fideos.

I have a buddy coming.

Her name is Margaret, and she just got back from Spain.

How perfect.

So she's going to show me her photos and I'm going to feed her Spanish food.

(upbeat music) I wonder if you had anything like this when you were in Spain.

- We had paella along the coast.

- This is very similar.

It's just we're using - It's got pasta in it instead of rice.

And this, you have to have a little bit of, this is garlic mayo that you put on, which is very key to the whole recipe.

There you go.

- Oh, it looks delicious.

- Yeah.

And we've got some Spanish wine with it.

Now, I love, this is tempranillo.

I love Spanish wine.

Are you a fan of Spanish wine?

- I particularly, I especially do love sangria in the summer though, I have to say.

- Yeah, well this is true.

It's so refreshing.

- Absolutely.

- But I love Spanish wine because it's so food-friendly.

I want to thank you all for joining me today.

I hope you make some of these Spanish-inspired meals at home.

Go ahead.

Eat up.

Eat up.

- Oh, it looks delicious.

Thank you.

- Because your family will just be so happy.

The flavors are so wonderful.

The ingredients are so great.

I'm Sara Moulton here with Margaret, and I'll see you next time for more of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(upbeat music) For recipes, videos, and more, go to our website saramoulton.com.

Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by - Aboard Oceania Cruises, our guests embrace a passion for travel, and our chefs are inspired by the flavors of the world and committed to providing fine dining at sea.

That's Oceania Cruises.

Oceania Cruises: Your World.

Your way.

- Since 1921, Season has brought you skinless and boneless sardine filets.

Our sardines are wild caught and contain essential vitamins and minerals for everyday meals.

Seasoned sardines, rich in omega-3s and protein.

♪ And it feels good.

- Sunsweet Amazin' Prunes and prune juice.

- And by Mutti Tomatoes of Parma, the Republic of Tea, and USA Rice.

(uplifting piano music)