Basque food: traditional dishes and local produce you have to try

Piperade, chipirones, marmitako, bacalao al pil-pil, axoa, gâteau basque, Ossau-Iraty, Kintoa ham… A complete guide to Basque food on both sides of the border.

From the fishing harbours of Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Donibane Lohizune) to the pepper fields of southern Navarre (Nafarroa), by way of the cider houses of Gipuzkoa and the sheep farms up in the mountains, Basque food is astonishingly varied: Atlantic fish, sauces thickened in the cazuela, peppers of every kind, sheep’s cheeses, outstanding cured meats and comforting desserts. Pull up a chair.

The great seafood classics

Ttoro, the fishermen’s soup of Saint-Jean-de-Luz

Born in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Ciboure and Socoa, ttoro was the soup of the fishermen, who cooked up the unsold catch on board or back on shore. Unlike blended fish soups, the pieces stay whole: hake, conger eel, red mullet, gurnard, scorpion fish and monkfish, with mussels, clams, langoustines or velvet crabs depending on the season. The broth? Olive oil, white wine, onions, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, herbs and Espelette pepper. It is served with bread rubbed with garlic. Saint-Jean-de-Luz’s sea and ttoro festivals (fêtes de la mer et du ttoro) have been on France’s intangible cultural heritage inventory since 2013. To try it on the spot: our guide to Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

Chipirons in their ink (txipirones en su tinta)

A monument of Basque cooking: baby squid stuffed with their own tentacles, slowly simmered with plenty of onion, then coated in a glossy black sauce made with their ink, pushed through a sieve until perfectly smooth. They are served in an earthenware cazuela with triangles of fried bread — or with white rice.

Hake koskera (merluza en salsa verde)

Hake steaks cooked in a green sauce of garlic, parsley and olive oil, with clams that open in the steam. The ‘koskera’ version (or a la vasca) adds peas and sometimes asparagus, and is finished with chopped hard-boiled egg — always in the earthenware cazuela.

Bacalao al pil-pil

Just four ingredients — salt cod, olive oil, garlic and chilli — and a technique that works all the magic: the cod poaches gently in the oil, then the cazuela is swirled relentlessly so that the gelatine from the fish emulsifies with the oil into a golden, velvety sauce. The name is said to come either from the movement of the wrist or from the sound of the sauce as it bubbles — both explanations do the rounds.

Kokotxas

The fleshy part under the jaw of hake or cod, a highly prized cut. They are cooked in salsa verde or al pil-pil, once again using the gelatine to bind the sauce.

Txangurro a la donostiarra

Txangurro is spider crab, with its broad, spiny shell and delicate meat. In the San Sebastián (Donostia) style, the meat is mixed with slowly softened onions, tomato and a splash of flambéed brandy, then spooned back into the shell, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and browned in the oven. A great classic on San Sebastián tables.

Tuna, the star of summer

Marmitako

The stew of the tuna boats of the Cantabrian Sea: albacore (white tuna, bonito del norte), potatoes, onion, pepper and tomato. It takes its name from the cooking pot (marmite) the fishermen took on board. It is eaten mainly in summer, the albacore fishing season, and is the star of many cooking competitions along the coast.

Basque-style tuna (thon à la basquaise)

On the coast, grilled tuna sometimes takes the place of chicken under a generous helping of piperade: the perfect marriage of Atlantic fish and garden peppers.

Dishes from the land

Piperade

Green peppers (often the Anglet sweet pepper in the French Basque Country), onions and tomatoes, gently cooked down until soft. Red, green and white: you can see the colours of the ikurriña, the Basque flag, in it. Piperade goes with eggs, meat or fish, is served with Bayonne ham, or becomes a dish in its own right when eggs are stirred in until they set. The word is thought to come from the Béarnese piperada, from pipèr, pepper.

Poulet basquaise

Pieces of chicken simmered in a piperade livened up with white wine, garlic, a bouquet garni and Espelette pepper, served in a casserole dish or an earthenware cazuela — sometimes with a slice of Bayonne ham.

Axoa

Shoulder of veal cut into small cubes, cooked with sweet peppers, onions and Espelette pepper. The name comes from the French verb hacher, to chop. A market-day dish in Labourd (Lapurdi), it was popularised among visitors by a restaurateur in Espelette. With a glass of Irouléguy, it is sheer bliss.

Alubias de Tolosa and their ‘sacraments’

In Tolosa, the black bean is a treasure. It cooks for about four hours over a low heat and is salted only at the end so the skins don’t split. It is served with its sacramentos: cabbage sautéed with garlic, meat or pork ribs, Ibarra chillies and black pudding. The bean festival takes place every year in mid-November.

The cider house (sagardotegi) and its menu

From mid-January to the end of April, it is txotx season: you taste the new cider straight from the barrel. The menu never changes: salt cod omelette, fried salt cod, rib steak (txuleta), then cheese with quince paste and walnuts.

Local produce

Espelette pepper PDO (AOP) — French AOC status in 2000, European PDO in 2002. According to the product specification, the area covers 10 municipalities in Labourd: Larressore and Souraïde in full, and Ainhoa, Cambo-les-Bains, Espelette, Halsou, Itxassou, Jatxou, Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle and Ustaritz in part. There is a pepper festival in Espelette every autumn. Find out everything in our dedicated article.
Bayonne ham PGI — rubbed with salt from Salies-de-Béarn (itself a PGI since 2016) and cured in the Adour basin: 7 months minimum according to the specification, but 9 to 12 months in practice. Its fair dates back to 1462, under Louis XI.
Kintoa ham PDO — from the black-and-white Basque pig (pie noir), which had almost disappeared by the 1980s. The pigs live outdoors for at least seven months (acorns, chestnuts, grass). The ham, a PDO since 2019, is cured for 16 to 18 months in Les Aldudes, then dusted with Espelette pepper.
Ossau-Iraty PDO — a sheep’s milk cheese (Basco-Béarnaise, red-faced Manech and black-faced Manech breeds), AOC in 1980 and PDO in 1996, aged for at least 80 or 120 days depending on the size. North of the border, it is served with black cherry jam.
Idiazabal — a raw sheep’s milk cheese made from Latxa and Carranzana sheep, with designation of origin status since 1987, aged for at least two months and sometimes smoked. South of the border, it is eaten with quince paste.
Itxassou black cherries — three local varieties: peloa (late May), xapata (early June) and beltxa (mid-June), used for jam and gâteau basque. See Itxassou.
Piquillo de Lodosa — a small red pepper from Navarre (8–10 cm), picked by hand from September to November, roasted over a flame and peeled one by one without water. The designation covers eight municipalities around Lodosa.
Irouléguy — the vineyards of Lower Navarre (around 240 ha across some fifteen municipalities), mostly red wines based on Tannat, with whites from Courbu and Manseng. See Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry.
Txakoli — the crisp white wine of the coast, explored in our txakoli guide.
Bayonne chocolate — it arrived more than four centuries ago with Portuguese Jewish merchants; in 1854, the town had 32 chocolate makers. See Bayonne.

Pintxo time: the gilda

The ancestor of all pintxos: an olive, an Ibarra chilli and an anchovy speared on a cocktail stick. Its name, which appeared in San Sebastián from 1946 onwards, pays tribute to the film Gilda starring Rita Hayworth: ‘salty, green and a little bit spicy’. For what comes next, follow our pintxos crawl in San Sebastián.

Talo, the maize flatbread

Talo (or taloa; pastetx in Soule) is the traditional flatbread of the Basque Country: maize flour, often mixed half and half with wheat flour, water and a little salt. The dough is flattened into a thick round and cooked on both sides, in the old days over a wood fire. Maize, which came from the Americas, spread across the Basque Country in the 16th and 17th centuries. Talo is topped with txistorra, ventrèche (cured pork belly), sheep’s cheese or chocolate. It is the star of the Santo Tomás fair (St Thomas’s Day) in San Sebastián and of the Olentzero festivities in Navarre.

Desserts

Gâteau basque (etxeko biskotxa, ‘the house cake’) — filled with crème pâtissière (almond or rum and vanilla) or black cherry jam. It appeared in the second half of the 19th century; Marianne Hirigoyen, from Cambo, was one of the first to sell it at Bayonne market. There is a museum devoted to it in Sare, and a festival every year in Cambo-les-Bains.
Pantxineta — puff pastry, crème pâtissière and almonds, created in 1915 by the Otaegui patisserie in San Sebastián. Best eaten warm.
Intxaursaltsa (‘walnut sauce’) — a cream of ground walnuts, cooked gently in milk with sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. This farmhouse dessert, made for big family celebrations and above all at Christmas, is slowly making a comeback.
Goxua (‘sweet’ in Basque) — whipped cream, sponge, crème pâtissière and caramel, created in Vitoria-Gasteiz around 1967.

Sources

Ongi etorri — and bon appétit!