Wine and Food
A casual, relaxed picnic or a comfortable lunch in a restaurant. Savour the rich gastronomy of our region, meet a cheese maker, a beekeeper or a pine nut grower.
It is surprising how little the essence of the Castilian cuisine has changed over the centuries. The vestiges found in the excavations of the archaeological site of Pintia, a few kilometers from the medieval town of Peñafiel, show that the Vaccei (our pre-Roman Celtic ancestors) liked to accompany their wines with lamb, probably roasted in a wood-fired oven as we do today! That’s indeed the star pairing in the lands of Castile: roasted suckling lamb with a Tempranillo red wine or even a “claret”. The traditional Castilian Leonese cuisine contrasts with the avant-garde menus designed by the chefs of prestigious restaurants. Lamb, game and all kinds of cured pork meat and sausages share fame and prominence with sheep’s milk cheese, asparagus, chickpeas, lentils, truffles, wild mushrooms, pine nuts…
And for those who have a sweet tooth, worth special mention are the pastries, some of which are traditional recipes from old monasteries and convents. Yum!