🇪🇸 Spain · Family: Entrepà · Region: Catalonia · Bread: barra · Proteins: pork
The Entrepà de Pernil is the Catalan ham sandwich, and it is the regional version of the most basic sandwich in Spain: cured ham in bread. Pernil is the Catalan word for jamón, the dry-cured Spanish ham sliced thin off the leg. Entrepà is Catalan for bocadillo. The angle is in the second half of the build, because in Catalonia this sandwich is rarely just ham and bread; the classic form is pernil laid on pa amb tomàquet, bread rubbed with ripe tomato and oil, and that rubbed-bread step is what separates it from the same sandwich made anywhere else in the country.
The build is simple but has a specific sequence. A crusty barra is split, and the cut face is rubbed with the flesh of a halved ripe tomato until the crumb is stained and slightly damp, then seasoned with salt and a drizzle of good olive oil. The pernil is draped over in thin, loosely folded slices so the ham stays open and tender rather than packed flat. Good execution means ham sliced thin enough to be silky and brought to room temperature so its fat softens and its flavor opens, bread rubbed with real tomato rather than a wipe of purée, and a crust firm enough to hold up to the moisture without going limp. Sloppy execution is thick, cold, rubbery ham slices stacked into a slab, bread either left dry and bare or smeared with watery tomato pulp that turns the crumb to mush, or a soft roll that collapses under it.
The sandwich shifts through the grade of ham and what, if anything, joins it. Jamón serrano is the everyday choice; the costlier ibérico from acorn-fed pigs makes the same sandwich deeper and nuttier. A slice of cheese turns up often, moving it toward a ham-and-cheese build. The plainest form skips the tomato entirely and is just ham on oiled bread, leaner and more austere. A grilled or pressed ham-and-cheese in the Catalan style is a different, hot sandwich that deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here. What defines the pernil entrepà is restraint and the tomato rub: good ham sliced thin, at room temperature, on properly rubbed bread, is the whole thing, and nothing extra improves it.
More from this family
Other Entrepà sandwiches in Spain: