Porrusalda
Editor's Note: This recipe, introductory text, and author's tips are excerpted from Marina Chang's book Tastes of the Pyrenees, Classic and Modern. We've also added some tips of our own below.
For a complete guide to Basque cuisine, click here.
Porrusalda, or leek soup in Basque, is a very traditional dish. It includes pumpkins, an interesting component in a soup composed of both Old World (carrots, leeks) and New World (potatoes, pumpkin) ingredients.
In Spain, the first record of using potatoes as food was written in 1530. The families of Basque sailors along the Bay of Biscay were the first Europeans to grow potatoes in their gardens, and Basques fishing for cod introduced them to the Irish by the mid seventeenth century.
Pumpkins were widely eaten by native Americans from Canada to northern South America for centuries before Columbus arrived. European settlers in North America readily adopted them as a staple in their diets. The first definite record of pumpkins in Europe occurred in 1591. Pumpkins require a fair amount of hot weather for best growth and are successful in much of the Pyrenean region, unlike northern Europe.
• The small, round, orange Japanese squash called kuri squash most closely approximates the Basque pumpkin, and can be found at many farmers' markets. If you are unable to find kuri squash, American pumpkin is fine for this soup.
