Portuguese Recipes

Known as bolinhos in Portuguese ("little cakes"), these croquettes are Daniel Boulud's take on a classic Brazilian bar food. Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with plump chunks of salt cod, they are a terrific match for zippy caipirinhas.

This combination of briny cockles and smoky pork is traditional in southern Portugal's Alentejo region, though the fresh red chiles in the sauce here add a distinctive twist (for a sweeter variation, use red bell peppers instead). The Alentejo is a significant wine region, producing medium-weight, lively, rustic bottlings from the Tempranillo grape, known there as Aragonez.

Instead of using salt cod, a classic Portuguese ingredient that takes days to soak, New York City chef George Mendes of Aldea quick-cures fresh cod by standing it in kosher salt for only 10 minutes. He says cod is naturally soft and flaky ("as well as bland," he adds), so salting gives it a firmer texture and a more pronounced flavor.

"In the Amazon, cooks make a Portuguese-style chorizo that's very good," says Pedro Miguel Schiaffino. He uses it with other local ingredients in this spin on a Latin classic.

There seems to be a daunting amount of onions in this Portuguese-inspired dish, but with the bacon they cook down to a wonderful, smoky jam surrounding super tender beef.

Portuguese cataplana is a long-simmered pork stew to which clams are added. For our quick take on the dish, we've replaced the usual pork shoulder with sausage.

Combining Two Portuguese favorites—kale-and-sausage soup and a bean, sausage, and tomato stew—makes a simple, sensational one-pot meal. To keep the focus on the vegetables, we've used just a tiny amount of fresh sausage; you can add more, if you like, or substitute dried chorizo or pepperoni.