"Coca de Sant Joan", sweet coca with candied fruits and pine nuts, typical of Catalan summer solstice celebration"Coca de crema", coca with Catalan cream, an example of sweet coca"Coca de mullador", a valencian variety of coca with samfaina, a dish similar toratatouille, an example of the savoury coca
There are many diverse cocas, with four main varieties: sweet, savoury, closed and open. All of them use dough as the main ingredient, which is then decorated. This dough can be sweet or savoury. If it is sweet,eggs andsugar are added, and if it is savoury,yeast andsalt. As regards the topping or filling, fish and vegetables are usual at the coast whilst inland they prefer fruit, nuts, cheese and meat.[7] Some cocas can be both sweet and savoury (typically mixing meat and fruit).[citation needed]
Amongst the list of varieties, the most common are:
Coca de recapte, a savoury coca with a variety of different ingredients, usually including sausage and vegetables, available generally.
Coca de Reis alsoTortell orRoscó. Similar to the Coca de Sant Joan but with a hole and filled with marzipan on the inside. It is habitual in all of Spain and France and is eaten on 6 January forDia de Reis (Kings’ day). Traditionally, a king and a faba bean is put inside, the one who gets the king, gets to have the cardboard crown, while the one who gets the bean, pays for the next one.
Coca de trempó, from Mallorca and the Balearics.
Coca de Sant Joan, a sweet coca most typical of Catalonia, eaten onLa revetlla de Sant Joan,Saint John's Eve.
Coca de llanda, from the area around Valencia.
Coca de xulla, often calledcoca de llardons, bearing bacon and other meat products, typical of any mountainous area.
Coca de pa. Literally: bread coca. A thin coca without condiments made in theBalearic Islands, served withsobrassada.
Coca de peix. Literally: fish coca. Also made with shrimp.
Coca de pernil i raïm. Literally: ham and grape coca.
Coca de Pèsols. Literally; Pea coca. It also has tuna or sardines, and if there are none then sausages will be used. It also has garlic andfaba beans.
Coca de Tomaca. Literally: tomato coca.
Coca de Tonyina. Literally: tuna coca. Also calledCoca de Sant Joan. It is asamfaina but with onion and tuna. It is eaten in theAlacantí during thebonfires of Saint John.
Coca dolça amb tallades. A sweet coca withsobrassada. From Majorca.
Coca fina. Literally: thin coca. A sugared coca.
Coca flonja.
Coca de formatge fresc. Literally: fresh cheese coca. Typical ofVallespir.
Coca garlanda. A coca with a hole typical of all thePenedès.
Cóc de iogurt. Literally: yogurt coca.
Coca de llardons. Made withlardons, then baked and covered with pine nuts. Typical of mountainous regions like thePyrenees, even though it is present in all ofCatalonia. It is traditionally eaten onFat Tuesday.
Coca de llauna. Literally: tin coca. Typical of the central Valencian Community. It is a spongy coca with orange juice made in a tin in the oven.
Coca de Llavaneres. A coca filled with cream and covered in marzipan, sugar and pine nuts.
Coca de llet. Literally: milk coca.
Coca de llimonada. Literally: lemonade coca.
Coca de maduixes. Literally: strawberry coca.
Coca Maria orCoca bamba. A spongy coca similar to a tallensaïmada. It is usually accompanied by hot chocolate. Typical of the Valencian region andMenorca.
Coca masegada. Made with muscat and brandy.
Coca de Montserrat ormontserratina. A soft, long and narrow coca, covered with sugar, fromMontserrat.
Coca amb molles
Coca amb nous. Literally: nut coca.
Coca de pastanaga. Literally: carrot coca.
Coca de pinyons. Literally: pine nut coca.
Coca de poma. Literally: apple coca. Eaten around theTerres de l'Ebre and the Valencian community.
Còc rapid. Literally: quick coca.
Coca de Sagí, from Majorca.
Coquetes de Sant Blai
Coca de Sant Cristòfol
Coca de sobrassada i mel. Typical of the Balearics.
Coca de sucre. Literally: sugar coca. A coca with nothing more than oil and sugar. In the Balearics, they sometimes addsobrassada.
Coca de Taronja. Literally: orange coca.
Coca de Vidre. Literally: crystal coca. A long and very thin coca, with sugar and anise. That way, a transparent layer of caramelization happens, that is where it gets its name. Sometimes, pine nuts are added.
Coca de Vilafranca
Coca de Xocolata. Literally: chocolate coca. A sweet closed coca with chocolate.
"Cocas are (...) strongly linked with our country's traditions."[8] The coca is a dish common to rich and poor[9] and a basic part ofCatalan cuisine.
In Catalonia, the coca has a direct relationship with thefesta or holiday.[10] It is typical to buy or prepare cocas during holidays, especially duringEaster (Pasqua),Christmas (Nadal) andSaint John's Eve (la revetlla de Sant Joan). Some cocas even have the names of saints and they are eaten on that saint's day (such as the Saint John's Coca,Coca de Sant Joan). Nonetheless, many eat them without any religious or festive reason, and especially in places likeItaly, this dish need not carry any special significance. TheCoca de Recapte obeys this logic exactly, since therecapte is a kind of picnic habitually taken out into the fields.[citation needed]
Coca, being the Catalan variety of aMediterranean dish, has local counterparts all over the Mediterranean, especially in its savoury kind. Apart from Italy,[11] other countries also have similar cakes, pies and pastries. Four examples are theAlgerian coca which is a variety of the Catalan coca, often presented as a closed square pizza filled with onions, red peppers, tomatoes, and spices, or shaped likeempanadas which are from the same family as cocas;Pissaladière fromProvence; theLahmacun fromTurkey and theBouchée à la Reine fromFrance,Belgium andLuxembourg, where it is one of the national dishes.[12] Similarly, sweet pies can be found all overEurope. The more specificKing's cake (in Catalan,Tortell de Reis) is traditional inOccitania as well as interritories of Catalan culture as a part of the New Year holidays.[citation needed]
^Source: Eliana Thibaut i Comalada, pp20Les Coques Catalanes, Proa, Barcelona 1995.
^Source: Eliana Thibaut i Comalada, pp17Les Coques Catalanes, Proa, Barcelona 1995.
^"This is not a dish for the nobility, but rather one linked to popular traditions..."Source: Eliana Thibaut i Comalada, pp 17Les Coques Catalanes, Proa, Barcelona 1995.
^"...we can assert that the coca is truly an example of popular cuisine associated with religious ritual..."Source: Eliana Thibaut i Comalada, pp19Les Coques Catalanes, Proa, Barcelona 1995.
^"In Italy, (...) we have seen these cocas in bakeries and pizzerias, exactly the same as their valencian counterparts."Source: Martí Dominguez,Els Nostres Menjars (1978), quoted by Eliana Thibaut i Comalada,Les Coques Catalanes, Proa, Barcelona 1995.
