The Yeclana gastronomy is another temptation to which the visitor does not usually oppose excessive resistance. Gazpachos, gachasmigas, rice and rabbit from Raspay, stuffed balls and fried cheese with tomato. They are dishes that once constituted the traditional diet of the peasant and that today reach the most opulent tables. Currently, traditional cuisine coexists with "nouvelle cuisine" in quality restaurants. In addition, these dishes can be enhanced if they are accompanied by the excellent and abundant wines of our Denomination of Origin .
You can also eat tapas in the different bars of the city , and every year they offer a demonstration at their Tapa Fair held in March, coinciding with the Furniture Fair of Yecla.
Discover them in the restaurants and bars of the Yecla Wine Route:
restaurants and wine bars
Let's highlight the traditional dishes:
Gazpachos
It is the most characteristic dish, the gazpachos in the plural, which in Yecla reach delirium, according to the gastronomist José Briz, and who won the National Gazpacho Award in the annual Enguera competition. Its ingredients are: very thin cake of unleavened bread, broken into very small pieces, game meats or farmyard, snails serranos. You can add other ingredients such as tuna, pepper, chanterelles, etc. Its final appearance, focused on the cake, is very curious and its flavor is delicious. They are eaten accompanied by good red wine and onion in vinegar.
Gachasmigas
It is possible that, like gazpachos and fried cakes, they have their origin in the Arab cuisine that was so fond of meals made with flour. Oil, garlic, flour and water are the ingredients. It looks like an omelet with a golden crust. They are usually eaten in the own pan and they are watered with generous red wine and some sour dressings.
Rice and rabbit type Raspay
It has been defined by an illustrious gourmet as the best rice in Spain. The unique flavor of this paella of a stonemason's finger is due to some very tasty mountain snails and the rabbit of the farmyard, as well as to the art of making splendid the simple. The right pairing is with the young wines of the Monastrell variety.
Balls or stuffing
It constitutes the main dish of the yeclana gastronomy. Real balls the size of tennis balls, made with breadcrumbs soaked in water and milk, lean minced, pine nuts, parsley and spices, boiled in the broth of the traditional stew.
Fried cheese with tomato
Fresh goat cheese fried and accompanied by tomato, also fried, constitute an exquisite blend of extraordinary simplicity. It is accompanied by white or pink wine.
Fried cakes
Extremely simple dish consisting of fermented dough with fried yeast in plenty of oil. You can eat with sugar, salt, anchovies, honey, without missing a good rosé wine to accompany.
Potato Empanadas
The empanadas, which were mainly made during Holy Week, are now enjoyed all year round. A dough sobada with oil houses an amalgam of potatoes a lot, tuna, pine nuts, red pepper and hard-boiled egg.
Sweets
Among the characteristic sweets are the libricos , made by hand, according to a recipe passed from parents to children, whose ingredients are wafers and honey. The "blessed bread" is made with flour, egg, oil and sugar; It has the characteristic appearance of a very sobado bread with very typical adornments, made in the same dough before cooking; they knead, coinciding with the fiesta of San Blas. "Sequillos", "madalenas", "toñas", "galletas", "rollicos de anís" and "ensaimadas" better than those of Mallorca, complete the catalog of sweets.
