Mar i Muntanya

The original surf-and-turf, mar i muntanya is a rustic dish born from Catalonia’s location between the Pyrenees mountains and the Balearic Sea. While many homestyle mar i muntanya recipes feature shrimp and bone-in chicken, this version is inspired by the dish at Ca L'Estevet, a 130-year-old family-run restaurant in Barcelona, where just-cooked shellfish and beef meatballs mingle in a moody tomato-based sauce. A bit of dark chocolate adds a note of bittersweet richness.

Traditional mar i muntanya is often thickened with a picada—a ground mixture of almonds, garlic, and toasted bread. Here we swap in panko breadcrumbs for the toast, which you’ll use again to tenderize your meatballs, in order to keep the ingredients list tight. Serve with simple boiled potatoes on the side to sop up the thick savory sauce.