Pork and beef meatballs poached in a pale sauce of ground almonds, saffron, garlic and fried bread, thickened by the nuts rather than by flour. A direct survivor of the Andalusi kitchen.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Almond-thickened sauces are one of the clearest inheritances the caliphate left in Córdoba's cooking. Before roux and before cream, kitchens here thickened liquid by pounding fried bread and blanched almonds in a mortar with saffron and garlic, a technique that runs through medieval Andalusi manuscripts and survives on tabernas cartas today. The same base sauce carries meatballs, chicken, salt cod or hard-boiled eggs depending on the house. Ermita de la Candelaria, cooking in a converted hermitage, keeps the meatball version on its carta as a house plate.
Common allergens: Gluten, Nuts, Egg
Tip from the editors. Fry the almonds slowly. They colour in seconds at the end and burnt almonds make the whole sauce bitter.
Ermita de la Candelaria cooks inside a converted hermitage in Córdoba, almond-sauce meatballs and honeyed aubergine under a Sol from the Repsol guide.
Signature: Albóndigas en salsa de almendras, Berenjenas con miel, Salmorejo cordobés
Order: The albóndigas in almond sauce, a direct descendant of the Andalusi kitchen.
Tip: The building is a former chapel, so tables are few; book a midweek lunch if you want the easiest table.
Taberna Regina has held its corner of a quiet Córdoba plaza since 1904, off every standard walking route and open mainly for the midday service.
Why locals love it: It sits on a small plaza that no standard Mezquita-to-Corredera walking route passes, and it trades mostly at lunchtime, five days a week.
Tip: The taberna shuts Monday and Tuesday and opens for dinner on Friday and Saturday only, so time a midweek visit for the midday service.
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