Garash Torta

Sofia. Yogurt is not a garnish here. It carries tarator, a cold soup of yogurt, cucumber, garlic, dill and walnut eaten all summer, and sirene, the brined white cheese, is crumbled over shopska salad. The story that the salad was designed in the national colours is a modern claim rather than a documented one.

Bulgaria. Banitsa is the everyday pastry: thin sheets of dough layered with sirene and egg, coiled into a tin and baked, eaten warm for breakfast with a glass of ayran or boza. At new year, fortunes written on slips of paper are baked inside it and everyone takes a piece. Tarator, cold cucumber in soured milk with walnut and dill, is the summer counterpart.

Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.