A TASTE OF SPAIN
Villa Basque Deli creates chorizo from the homeland.
WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY STACEY WITTEK
Next to the brewing and fermentation of grains, sausage is one of the world’s oldest consumable goods. Both are the logical outcome of preservation and storage. Both emerged out of a desire to avoid waste. And both share honorable mention in a host of literature from Homer (the Greek poet) to Homer (the Simpson). It’s an added bonus that the venerable food and drink get along so well. But that’s another story.
Traditionally made by those with modest means (with bits of nutritious meat scraps), sausage is a star product in many countries. Countrymen attest to the region, recipe, and quality of their sausage with appellations that are typically given to wines. In Milan you will find cervellata, a delicious sausage of pork sirloin and brain, seasoned with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, saffron, and nutmeg. In Greece sausages may be flavored with pig liver, orange peel, and pine nuts.
| Pete Corscarat of Villa Basque Deli in Carson City |
Chorizo is the venerated sausage of the Iberian Peninsula and perhaps no one appreciates it more than the Basque. It may be smoked or unsmoked. It may be roughly ground or smoothly textured. It may be slightly sweet or spicy. It may be long, thin, and lean or soft, round, and fatty. It always is deliciously seasoned with the dried and smoked red peppers that give chorizo its distinct deep red character. Luckily for us, chorizo recipes came with the Basque on their journey to the United States.
Pete Coscarat, owner of Villa Basque Deli & Café in Carson City, was 17 years old when he emigrated to the United States from the village of Azpilcueta in Northern Spain. He came to work for the sheep outfit El Tejou and cooked in the camps before moving to Bakersfield, Calif., to work at the famous Basque restaurant Wool Growers.
In 1981 Coscarat relocated to Battle Mountain, Nev., to run a grocery store. It was there that he began to make chorizo.
“We lived in an apartment above the store and started out with four employees,” he says. “And, by 1984, we employed 14 people and had expanded our business.”
In 1997, to the sadness of his many followers in Battle Mountain, Coscarat moved to Carson City to open Villa Basque Deli. In addition to incorporating his product into a number of great dishes on site, the deli makes chorizo in 200-pound batches at a time and packages the sausages for retail.
Villa Basque Deli makes mild to spicy fresh chorizos and also offers smoked and cured varieties imported from Portugal and Spain. Here you also will find Basque cheeses and salted cod used to make the traditional Basque dish bacaloa. Just as important, you will find the generosity and hospitality for which the Basque people are famous.
Stacey Wittek is a writer, photographer, and teacher, as well as a passionate researcher of history and food culture.
RESOURCES
Villa Basque Deli & Cafe
730 Basque Way, Carson City
775-884-4451
