Four foundational sauces of Catalan cooking
Catalan cuisine is built on four base preparations: sofregit (onion, and often tomato, cooked down slowly in olive oil), picada (a pounded paste of nuts, garlic, bread, herbs and sometimes chocolate), allioli (garlic emulsified with oil), and samfaina (a stewed mix of summer vegetables). The sofregit goes in at the start to give a dish its flavor base. The picada goes in near the end to thicken and season it, so knowing these components explains most of the dishes built from them.