Button Katie - Cúrate: authentic Spanish food from an American kitchen

IN MY HOME, PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS EATING whether its a freshly made pan con tomate thrown together from the last of the ripe summer tomatoes, good olive oil, and some crusty bread; a big pan of seafood paella shared amongst three generations in a backyard summer feast; or a lunch of leftover tortilla espaola alongside a simple green salad scattered with candied nuts. No matter the meal, cooking and serving delicious Spanish food at home is much easier than you might think. When you envision Spanish food, you may think tapassmall dishes meant to be served with drinks. And while flavorful bites like banderillas and empanadas provide plenty of inspirations for entertaining, tapas are just a slice of what Spanish cuisine has to offer.

The Spanish cuisine of today in many ways reflects the privations of their civil war years, when home cooks had to be creative with humble ingredients. As a result, simple, comforting food that highlights the beautiful produce, seafood, and meat grown, caught, and raised all around the country forms the basis of Spanish cuisine. Given the fertility of the land and huge coastal areas, Spanish food has always been about the ingredients. And then there are the flavors. Unlike most other countries in Western Europe, Spain is heavily influenced by the spices and seasonings of North Africa. Regional cuisines within Spain vary not only geographically but culturally as well. Galicia, the Basque Country, and Catalonia have their own languages and almost feel like countries within the country. However different their heritages may be, regions within Spain share a philosophy of cooking and dining that places food at the center of familial and unpretentious everyday celebrations.

The food itself is as comforting as the ritual of sharing it. Crate, a Spanish restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina, that I opened in 2011 along with my husband, Flix, and my parents, Liz and Ted, translates to cure yourself, an imperative I take to heart when welcoming guests for a meal. The traditional Spanish cuisine we serve honors the seasonal, local ingredients of the Blue Ridge Mountains and celebrates Southern simplicity and hospitality while championing authentic Spanish dishes and techniques. If these sound like contradictions, theyre no more surprising than a former chemical and biomolecular engineering major at Cornell University dropping out of a PhD program to pursue a culinary career. But first, let me tell you how I got to that point.

MY STORY

Growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, I developed an abiding love of pulled pork with mustard sauce, smoked ribs and chicken, boiled peanuts, and the healing power of soul food. Back home, my grandma and mom slowly stewed collard greens and baked tomato pies and peach pies. For my birthday every year, they followed an orange sponge cake recipe from the Heritage Southern Food Cookbook that came out of the pan as light and airy as a cloud.

When my mom launched her own catering company, my palate continued to expand beyond Southern cuisine. Our home kitchen always buzzed with activity, and commercial freezers lined our basement walls. The scent of Moms wonderful rosemary butter rolls hung in the air until the smoke from seared beef tenderloin took over. Any leftovers from catering jobs ended up as my brown-bag lunches. One day itd be baked brie with raspberries and mushroom pat; on other days Id get spinach wrapped in phyllo or white bean shrimp salad with goat cheese. If Mom had dough scraps after forming tiny tart shells, shed fill them with jam and sprinkle them with sugar to bake into lunchbox treats.