What to Eat in Cuenca, Spain

Cuenca sits between the Serranía’s forests and the La Mancha plateau, a crossroads of highland cold and sun-baked summers. This landscape shapes a cuisine built on game, wheat flatbreads, preserved cod, and honeyed sweets. Locals favor a hearty midday meal and lighter evening raciones shared with wine.

Cooks lean on olive oil, garlic, and aromatic herbs like rosemary and thyme, with pork and lamb reflecting long pastoral traditions. River gorges and winter snows have encouraged slow-cooked stews and mortar-made spreads designed for warmth. Seasonal baking and convent sweets round out a distinctly Castilian table.

Morteruelo is a robust spread made by slow-simmering pork liver with game meats such as hare, rabbit, or partridge, along with hen, bay leaf, and pepper until tender. The meats are shredded and folded back into a reduced broth, then thickened with fine breadcrumbs and seasoned with cinnamon, clove, and sometimes paprika for gentle heat. Traditionally pounded in a mortar—hence the name—it becomes a smooth, spoonable paste served warm in a clay cazuela and scooped onto slices of dense pan candeal. Deeply savory with aromatic spice, morteruelo reflects medieval hunting households and remains a winter staple, commonly eaten at home gatherings and as a hearty first course or tapa during the cold months.

Atascaburras, locally also called ajoarriero de Cuenca, begins with salt cod soaked and desalted, then gently poached with potatoes until both are soft. Cooked garlic cloves are mashed with the potato and flaked cod, and extra-virgin olive oil is slowly worked in to form a glossy emulsion reminiscent of brandade. It is served warm, garnished with walnut halves and slices of hard-boiled egg, and sometimes finished with a thread of good oil. The flavor is clean, garlicky, and comforting, a legacy of Lenten cooking and of winter days when fresh meat was scarce; families share it as a starter or light lunch, especially in colder months when a rich, sustaining bite is welcome.

Despite the name, this is a hot stew—a hunter’s classic built on rabbit, hare, partridge, or chicken simmered with a sofrito of tomato, onion, and pepper. Garlic, bay, rosemary, and thyme perfume the broth, which is thickened by crumbling in torta cenceña, an unleavened wheat flatbread that absorbs juices and softens like noodles. Cooked in a wide pan and served directly from it, gazpachos manchegos are eaten communally with spoons, reflecting shepherd and hunter traditions on the plateau. Hearty, aromatic, and lightly gamey, the dish is favored in cool weather and during hunting season, appearing at family meals and countryside gatherings where the ritual of sharing from one pan is as important as the flavors.

Zarajos are a hallmark of Cuenca’s tapas culture: lamb intestines meticulously cleaned, briefly blanched, and wound around a short vine shoot before cooking. Lightly salted and sometimes brushed with garlic, lemon, or a dusting of paprika, they are grilled over coals or pan-fried until crisp on the outside and juicy within. The result is intensely savory with a delicate mineral note, and a texture that alternates between crackling edges and tender interior coils. Rooted in the area’s viticulture—vine prunings provide both tool and aroma—zarajos are most often eaten hot as a bar snack with wine, especially during fairs and weekend gatherings when grills are at their busiest.

Alajú is Cuenca’s emblematic sweet, a dense disc of honey cooked to a soft caramel and mixed with breadcrumbs, ground almonds or walnuts, citrus zest, and a touch of cinnamon. The mixture is pressed between two obleas (wafers), forming a compact cake that sets as it cools, ready to be sliced into firm, chewy portions. Its flavor is aromatic and nutty with bright notes of orange or lemon, a clear echo of Andalusí confectionery techniques that traveled inland centuries ago. Traditionally associated with Christmas and Holy Week but enjoyed year-round, alajú appears on family tables and in bakery counters as a portable, energy-rich dessert that pairs well with coffee or a small glass of local liqueur.

Cuenca’s table bridges mountain and mesa: game and lamb, preserved cod, and wheat flatbreads shaped by cold winters and dry summers. Olive oil, garlic, and wild herbs deliver clear flavors, while communal habits—sharing from a pan or cazuela—define the experience. Explore more regional food guides and plan weather-smart trips with Sunheron.com to connect dishes with the seasons that created them.