Mallorcan food: typical dishes and traditional recipes

Mallorca is an island full of unique treasures. Many of them can be enjoyed by sight, but there are some that require special attention. This is the case of Mallorcan food, which stands out among the various Mediterranean-style cuisines, full of traditional recipes that bring you the flavour of the island’s history – recipes that speak of territory, conquests, customs, and their people.

Table of contents

1. Mallorca food


2. Typical ingredients in Mallorcan cooking


3. Typical Mallorcan dishes


4. Mallorca Summer dishes


5. Mallorcan winter dishes

Mallorcan food

Mallorcan food faithfully reflects the different territories on Mallorca. The island is divided into three areas with very different characteristics. First of all, there’s the magnificent mountain range Serra de Tramuntana, where grazing and terraced crops are distinguishing features. Then there's the Sierra de Levante – an area where traditional fishing is combined with horticulture and livestock. In the middle of these two the great plains extend into the distance, filled with orchards, cereal farms, potato fields and wide pastures shaded by holm oak and olive trees.

Another main influence on Mallorcan cuisine is the island’s past. From its origin to its conquests, reconquests, and its important role in the trade running through the Mediterranean. Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, as well as a clear Islamic footprint and Christian tradition are all mixed up to create a recipe book filled with delicious dishes that will take you on a culinary trip through ingredients grown and harvested on the island.

Typical ingredients in Mallorcan cooking

Mallorca, with its spectacular mountains and wide plains, is a fertile land where crops are filled with flavour and unique aromas. Apart from its large orchards, where all kinds of vegetables are grown, there are also quality products known all over the world for their excellence, such as almonds, olive oil, wine, and the Sa Pobla potato. This potato variety is one of few providing two full harvests per year, and it's a staple in Mallorcan cuisine.

Tomatoes, peppers – especially white peppers – artichokes, aubergines, garlic, and onions are ingredients you’ll always find in kitchen pantries around the island. Added to these are legumes, flour and rice – the basis of many of Mallorca's most famous dishes, such as vegetable coca, a kind of Mallorcan pizza, the ensaimada pastry, and the classic paella.

The most important meat in the traditional Mallorcan recipe book is pork. There is also beef, poultry and lamb, but pork is the protagonist in many of the dishes you will come across on the island. It also plays the main role in one of the oldest and most popular traditions of Mallorca, the so-called matanzas when family and friends meet up at a traditional farmhouse to make the classic sausages of the island: botifarró, camaiot and sobrasada.

Fish and seafood also feature prominently in Mallorca's traditional cuisine. Even if fishing was never as widespread and productive as agriculture and livestock on the island, there is a great culture of seafood dishes in the coastal towns, especially those that have a port. They still supply the island with tasty rockfish, red prawns from Sóller and rock lobsters, among other things.

Typical Mallorcan dishes

Traditional Mallorcan dishes can be divided into summer and winter food. The climate of the island affects many products grown in its gardens, meaning that the dining experience will be completely different depending on whether you visit Mallorca in summer, or come here during the winter months.

Mallorcan summer dishes

To counteract the high temperatures, food eaten on Mallorca in summer is light and the flavours are fresh. The dishes are very simple to make the most of the nutrients in the different ingredients, and to ensure smooth digestion. Some of the great must-haves are:

> Trempó

This is the typical Mallorcan salad: a dish that is astonishingly simple and loved by many. It's made with ripe tomatoes, white onion and Mallorcan pepper, all chopped and given a good splash of extra virgin olive oil. If you want, you can also add some salt and pepper or perhaps even a little lemon juice or vinegar. There are other versions that use canned tuna to give it more consistency.

> Granada

The aubergine is one of the most-used ingredients in Mallorcan kitchens, especially in summer. La granada is one of the most traditional dishes you'll come across in the island's recipe book. It's a baked recipe and closely resembles typical meat pies or vegetable puddings. It's easy to make: fry some onion and garlic, fry the aubergine, mix everything well with a beaten egg, and bake.

> Tumbet

This is a Mallorcan vegetable garden brought to the table. The ingredients are: tomato (chopped to make a sauce), aubergine, potato and pepper. All cut into slices and fried in the same oil, but separately. This way the flavours are mixed. It's served in a small bowl, layering each ingredient and pouring the tomato sauce over the dish. Ideally, you let it cool down and eat it at room temperature.

Mallorcan winter dishes

In winter, Mallorca is buzzing with festivals and popular traditions. One of the most famous ones is the previously mentioned matanzas, when the best pigs raised that year are slaughtered and butchered at country estates. With pork as the base, the locals make some of their most succulent and tasty dishes that undoubtedly help everyone to cope with days of rain and cold, especially in the island’s mountains.

> Frit de matanzas

This is the classic dish from the matanzas. It's usually made on the first day using leftover parts of the pig, the so-called casquería – traditionally it had no value, but today it’s a star ingredient in haute cuisine. The recipe calls for potatoes cut into cubes, ribs, bacon, pork loin, pork liver, garlic and aromatic herbs such as laurel. Everything is sautéed, separately but in the same oil, to give it a more intense flavour.

> Mallorcan "sopas"

Even if the name might suggest a soup, Mallorcan 'sopas' are dry, as they are made using brown bread that absorbs the oil and liquid from the rest of the ingredients. It's a recipe that uses leftovers, combining potato, pepper, onion, garlic, cauliflower and cabbage. Everything is fried and cooked with a little liquid and a lot of paprika.

> Suckling pig

One of the most exquisite dishes on Mallorca is suckling pig cooked in a wood oven. The delicate meat and the special flavour it gets when baked in a traditional oven makes this an essential dish for family holidays, such as Christmas.

> Arròs brut

When autumn begins and the hunting season starts, arròs brut appears on Mallorcan restaurant tables. It's a rice dish made with a lot of broth, vegetables and meat, traditionally game such as rabbit, partridge, hare... It often features mushrooms when esclatasangs are in season – which is what saffron milk caps are called on the island – as well as artichokes, cauliflower, green beans and spices such as cloves, cumin, nutmeg, pepper and cinnamon, creating a unique flavour that makes this dish one of a kind.

We have a luxury dining space at Zafiro Hotels where you can savour these Mallorcan dishes: the Can Ribera restaurant, located in our boutique hotel in Muro,  Can Ribera by Zafiro. The menu here fuses authentic Mallorcan cuisine with a touch of the exotic, helped by the creative hand of the chef. Everything is prepared using the highest-quality ingredients and km-0 products, grown in the orchards of Mallorca.

The restaurant is a commitment to what's local, to the cuisine of proximity, and to the legacy of this incomparable island – and this is also reflected in the gastronomic service offered by Zafiro Palace, where the culinary experience goes beyond the culinary proposals as such, transforming spaces, infusing decor and atmosphere, as in the case of Zafiro Palace Andratx and its All Inclusive Redefined®.