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Text: CUINA MAGAZINE Photo: Anna García Frigola

Baked full of goodness

Stuffed with spinach, raisins and pine nuts, panadó is traditionally eaten during Lent

A tra­di­tional prod­uct of the Lenten pe­riod in Cat­alo­nia’s west­ern re­gion of Lleida, panadó is made from a bread dough en­riched with oil or lard, and oc­ca­sion­ally sugar. The dough is rolled out flat and, once filled with in­gre­di­ents, is folded on it­self and closed in the shape of a cres­cent. The edges of panadó are usu­ally pinched be­fore bak­ing in the oven.

The most tra­di­tional fill­ing is a stuff­ing made of spinach, raisins and pine nuts. Yet, fill­ings vary greatly today, with other veg­eta­bles like pump­kin often used. While panadó is tra­di­tion­ally a savoury dish, it is not usual these days to find sweet ver­sions, often made with fruits such as apple. Whether savoury or sweet, panadó can be eaten at any meal time, and while ideal straight from the oven, is also eaten cold.

There are stud­ies that trace the ori­gin of panadó to the Mid­dle Ages, and as­so­ci­ate the food’s be­gin­nings with the cul­ti­va­tion of wheat. Its as­so­ci­a­tion with Lent and Holy Week is be­lieved to be due to the fact that these are days in the Chris­t­ian cal­en­dar when meat was for­bid­den and ab­stain­ing from large meals was com­mon among be­liev­ers.

Eat­ing panadó also has some health ben­e­fits, largely due to the pres­ence of its most tra­di­tional fill­ing, spinach. This leafy green veg­etable has long been known for its nu­tri­tional qual­i­ties and has a rep­u­ta­tion for restor­ing en­ergy and in­creas­ing vi­tal­ity. No doubt this is where its as­so­ci­a­tion with the Amer­i­can car­toon char­ac­ter Pop­eye comes from. Spinach is rich in iron, as well as being an ex­cel­lent source of vi­t­a­min K, vi­t­a­min A, vi­t­a­min C and fo­late.

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