Spanish Tapas at Home: Easy Recipes, Menus and Drinks

How to make Spanish tapas at home with good ingredients: no-cook tapas, pan con tomate, a holiday tapas menu with quantities and what to drink with it all.

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Tapas aren’t a recipe, they’re a way of eating: small plates, shared, standing or sitting close, with something cold to drink. The good news is that the best tapas need almost no cooking — they need good ingredients and the right way to serve them.

The ingredients that do the work

Our top picks

  • The star of the table

    Black label

    Jamón de Bellota 100% Ibérico D.O.P. Jabugo, hand-cut, vacuum packed

    Comparing origins, Jabugo fans

    Check price on Amazon

  • The easiest tin

    Galician mussels

    Ramón Peña mussels in escabeche 16/20 (set of 4 × 110 g)

    Tapas, vermouth hour

    Check price on Amazon

  • The cheese

    PDO Queso Manchego

    Manchego PDO 12 months aged (reserve)

    Cheese boards, wine nights

    Check price on Amazon

10 tapas with no cooking

Ham, cheese, tins, bread and oil: ten classics you can put on the table in 20 minutes. → 10 easy Spanish tapas

Pan con tomate

The Catalan classic, and the base for half the tapas you’ll ever make. Three ingredients, one rule. → Pan con tomate with jamón

A tapas menu for a party

Christmas, New Year’s Eve or a birthday: what to serve for eight people, how much to buy and how to time it. → A Spanish tapas menu for a holiday party

What to drink

Vermouth, fino, cava, a small beer: what goes with what. → What to drink with tapas

→ The full chart: what to drink with jamón, Manchego and conservas

→ All our wine guides: Spanish wine and sherry

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