Paella with prawns, mussels, peas and other seafood In the Valencia region, they claim you can eat a different rice dish every day of the year, but let’s stick with the most traditional version for now. Ingredients for paella Valenciana include chicken or rabbit, saffron, runner beans and butter beans. But the all-important element is the rice, ideally the bomba or Calasparra varieties grown on Spain’s east coast, which are particularly good for absorbing all the flavours.

Prawns on a plate next to a small bowl of tomato sauce You walk into a tapas bar, the barman is handing a customer an earthenware dish of sizzling prawns, the tantalising aroma hits your nostrils and you just have to order some too. To recreate it at home, just fry some sliced garlic and green chilli in olive oil, throw in the prawns for a couple of minutes and add some parsley. Couldn’t be simpler, couldn’t be tastier.

Spanish omelette in a frying pan Eggs, potatoes, onions… that’s it – and some purists even consider that adding onion is a gastronomic crime of the highest order. The Spanish omelette is so much more than the sum of its parts. The potatoes and onions are slow fried in olive oil then mixed with the beaten eggs for the flavours to mix before cooking. Add chorizo, ham, spinach, courgettes or whatever you have to hand to make a tasty meal out of next to nothing.

Plate of patatas bravas with sausages Perhaps the most ubiquitous of tapas, patatas bravas vary quite a bit around the country, but all versions involve chunks of fried potato. In Madrid, bravas sauce is made with sweet and spicy pimentón (Spanish paprika), olive oil, flour and stock – but never tomatoes. Some people add garlic, some a dash of fino sherry, while others selfishly insist on keeping their secret ingredients to themselves.