Migas with Grapes, Borage with Potatoes and Roast Lamb: Five Dishes Aragon Eats to Celebrate El Pilar

On 12 October, Zaragoza celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, and the whole of Aragon celebrates with it. If you're looking for a single dish that represents the entire region, you won't find one. Aragonese cooking is the cooking of villages and mountains: long-simmered stews and filling dishes meant to feed shepherds and farmers before a full day's work in the fields. There's no gastronomic theatre here - there's yesterday's bread, fat and patience.

The region has plenty to put on the table: vegetables like borage, peaches from Calanda, olive oil, quality meat, ham from Teruel and sausages from Graus. It has four protected wine appellations and one geographical indication, with reds from Garnacha, Cariñena and Tempranillo and whites from Chardonnay, Macabeo and Gewürztraminer. And for dessert - chocolate-coated "Aragonese fruit", toffees called "adoquines" (cobblestones), almond guirlache and the braided cake from Almudévar. Here are five classics, each serving four.

1. Aragonese fritada. At first glance it looks like Manchego pisto, but it's creamier and has a stronger taste of red pepper. Potatoes, courgettes, green peppers, onion and, if you like, garlic are slowly stewed in olive oil. It's often served with a fried egg on top, and some add tuna, salt cod or sausage. If it sounds familiar - you're not wrong. Summer vegetables slowly stewed in oil are a language spoken across the whole Mediterranean, Macedonian cooking included.

2. Shepherd's migas. A dish born of necessity. Bread from the day before is lightly moistened with water, then fried in olive oil with garlic, bacon and chorizo or sausage. It's traditionally served with grapes - the sweet-sour fruit cuts through the fat. Every kitchen that doesn't throw bread away has its own version of this. How many grandmothers in Macedonia have turned stale bread into dinner, without knowing that in Spain it's a regional speciality?

3. Borage with potatoes. The stalks and leaves of the borage are boiled together with potatoes, then drizzled with olive oil and fried garlic. Simplicity taken to the extreme. There are also versions with clams or with ham.

4. Roast lamb with potatoes. Young Aragonese lamb has protected geographical status. It's rubbed with lard, seasoned and roasted with garlic and white wine. The side is potatoes cut into thin rounds, roasted with parsley and olive oil. Lard, garlic and wine: the recipe doesn't need skill, it needs time.

5. Peaches in wine. Calanda peaches, which have protected origin status, are slowly simmered in young red wine with sugar, cinnamon and citrus peel, then chilled. A tip from the kitchen: leave them in the fridge overnight - the flavour deepens. The best dessert is the one you made yesterday.