These recipes are just a small taste of the cuisine of the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park. José Lorente Polaina, from La Sarga restaurant in Cazorla, has prepared them for the simple purpose of showcasing the flavours of the mountains.

This is one of the many recipes of the Sierra based on local vegetable produce, enriched with the fish traditionally used in inland dishes: salted cod.

This is a versatile dish that can be served as a tapa, starter, side dish or as a main course. It was originally prepared en situ, working in vegetable gardens, transporting timbre or whilst harvesting olives.

In addition to its base of potatoes and dried pepper, it incorporates cod strips or leftovers, as an example of the most humble traditional cuisine.

According to tradition, when the rin-ran was being prepared in the countryside, it would always rain.

Bread and oil, extra virgin being the best, is the star pairing of our gastronomy. Their simplicity and, in equal measure, their taste and versatility enable them to form a part of breakfasts, countryside lunches, snacks and dinners, always accompanied by radish, olives, raw beans, cod, tomato, cucumber, sugar, chocolate or honey, depending on the occasion.

This is known as el hoyo in the Province of Jaén, referring to the way it is presented: a hollowed-out piece of bread which is filled with oil and the breadcrumbs that were previously extracted. The greater the quality of the oil, the stronger the taste.

Associated with periods of economic poverty, it has been re-evaluated in recent times as a healthy-heart component of the Mediterranean diet, a great alternative to the calorie-loaded food popular with young people. Furthermore, it acts as the basis for new ways of interpreting and presenting food.

This dish is representative of the traditional manner of living in the Sierra. In the past, meat was not as predominant in the diet, occasionally afforded in the form of game meat, but more often originating from la matanza. Pork was preserved in salt as a cold meat, or was cooked and stored in the oil used to fry it, as is the case of lomo en orza [an orza is a small earthenware jar].

Until they were eaten, the orzas, the cold meats and other semi-perishable products were stored in the pantry, small larders which were found in the darkest parts of town and country houses. This storage method would often lose its effectiveness after a few weeks, and the loin would start to go off from the third month onwards. Nowadays, as a result of the poorer quality of the meat, the loin goes off even sooner.

The vegetable garden is evident in this dish in the form of the potatoes, which soften and take some of the dryness out of the loin.

Segura lamb is one the culinary jewels, not only of the National Park, but of Andalusia as a whole. This lamb is earning increasingly greater prestige as a result of the significant efforts of the farmers behind the establishment of the Geographical Indication for Lamb from the Sierras de Segura and Sagra and the efforts of other farmers who organically rear this endemic breed, both inside and outside the park.

This pâté is somewhat of a novelty, given that it is produced from lamb liver. Other pâtés, such as partridge pâté, are held in high esteem in the Province of Jaén. Lamb pâté rounds off this list.

Lamb is most commonly served roasted or as a part of other traditional dishes.

This is a more elaborate version of a shepherd's snack, a meal that was traditionally carried in backpacks and baskets.

If there is one cheese that represents these mountains and the Province of Jaén, it is undoubtedly goat's cheese. Segura sheep is mainly used as a source of meat. Most often, it is goat's milk that is used to produce cheese.

In Pozo Alcón, in the South of the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas Natural Park, you can still find farmhouse cheeses (refer to the chapter on food and agricultural products) which will enable you to prepare this recipe.

In these sierras, trout from the local rivers is usually eaten on the same day that it is caught. However, at times when catches are plentiful, pickling brine is one way of preserving fish over short periods of time, for a few days at most.

Pickling brine can be consumed cold. Furthermore, its seasoning affords a refreshing sensation in the mouth.

Trout usually takes the form of rainbow trout reared in fish farms, which resemble the common indigenous trout caught in rivers.

This dish brings together all the different flavours of the landscape of the Natural Park: the local mountain orchard fruits that are becoming increasingly scarce, such as the "monjillas" plum, and the pinewood taste afforded by the kernels and the Royal variety of oil, extremely widespread in the olive groves of Cazorla.

The garnish is of equal importance as the cold garlic soup itself. There are two ways of making the soup: as a refreshing liquid, the most common form, or with more texture, as a cream, the manner proposed in this recipe.

Aubergine is present in many dishes, as a component of ratatouille or in various stews and fried foods and as an accompaniment to game meat, given its ability to facilitate the digestion of meats and fats.

On this occasion, we are afforded the unusual opportunity of mixing the flavour of seasonal aubergine with regional cheese.

This is one of the best examples of how the landscape can explain the dishes of these mountain regions. Traditionally, every country house cultivated patches of cereals for domestic consumption. Almond trees were dotted over the agricultural fields. In the farmyards of each house, or during the hunt, a rabbit could always be found to add to the pot.

The traditional landscape consisted of a mosaic of small cereal plots dotted around the mountainsides and woodlands. Gastronomy was fuelled by the ingredients of this landscape, where there was never a shortage of seasonal vegetable gardens where other flavours and aromas, such as spearmint, might be obtained. Thus, depending on the season, green beans from these vegetable gardens or milk cap mushrooms from the mountainsides would be added to dishes.

This dish is so closely linked with the landscape that it is said that the rabbit meat was sometimes substituted with squirrel (now a protected species), an ingredient that will never again form a part of this recipe.

Potatoes have served as the saving grace of casseroles. They add volume and energy to any dish. Even if meat was not very abundant, potatoes enabled casseroles to go further, filling as many plates as proved necessary.

Wild boar meat brings all the strength of the mountains to the table and allows for a marinade charged with numerous ingredients. Wild boar can be served in many ways, but in this case it is accompanied by green asparagus, individually gathered during long walks through the mountains.

This is another example of the cereal-based gastronomy of Jaén. It represents another way of serving fried flour dough. A simple dish, it was easily accompanied by anything found in the larder, irrespective of the time of year.

This is an example of inexpensive but imaginative cooking, offering a dish that is almost free of ingredients, a rich source of energy that fills the stomach during the long working day in the forest or whilst resting with the livestock. Gachamiga, like many other dishes, was eaten around the frying pan.

Artichokes are a frequent component of the gastronomy of the Province of Jaén, served in a wide variety of manners. In this recipe, we present a variation infused with the aromas of the Sierra.

The artichoke is crunchy (if eaten roasted), succulent, juicy and subtle, affording a wide range of flavours, slightly bitter in taste with a sweet final touch.

On this occasion, showcasing the artichoke's qualities, we are faced with a dish full of contrasts, boasting a perfect combination of ingredients. The rosemary's aroma and the currants' sweetness join the artichokes, in turn perfectly complemented by the tomato and spring onions, producing a dish of unequalled flavour.

This is a simple recipe, based around the product, a truly exquisite dish.

A variety of fried, crunchy vegetables substitute what is locally known as hojarascás potatoes, a local version of crisp fried potatoes, which aid digestion of this meat as it can prove somewhat difficult to swallow.

All fish, apart from fresh trout, was traditionally salted in this region for preservation and prior to consumption. Thus, cod is deeply entrenched in the Province of Jaén. This is particularly true in mountain areas, owing to their greater degree of isolation, where the only fish available was salted sea fish.

As a result, cod with onions is a staple of many Spanish regional kitchens, where salting has afforded the possibility of fish, particularly cod. This onion-based dish is singular as a result of the aroma of thyme and the mashed ingredients that are incorporated.

Apart from certain attempts at mycorrhization - symbiosis between a fungus and tree roots, in this case employing black truffles in Santiago de la Espada, in the North of the Natural Park - as an ingredient, the truffle remains exotic, despite the fact that this mountainous area seemingly provides a perfect habitat for this fungus.

The lamb loins can also be prepared in a similar fashion with boletus edulis [porcino], an edible mushroom found in the pine forests of the Sierra in autumn. Whether served with mushrooms or truffles, it is the perfect way of enjoying organically bred Segura lamb.

This is the dessert of the All-Saint's Day festivity. It is a hearty dish, as a result of its flavour and consistency.

It is another dish associated with poorer times, the flour dough satiating and energising but affording little nutritional value. In any case, this memory does not detract from one of the favourite desserts of those with the sweetest tooth.

Its use in a non-culinary manner was and indeed still is as common as the consumption of the dessert itself, which entails using the dough from the gachas to play an annoying practical joke. At the start of November, children would block up the locks with fresh dough, which once dry, would render the school or one of the grumpy neighbour's houses inaccessible, which they would be allowed to forget for the remainder of the year.

Honey is a classic component of the mountainous areas of Andalusia. Red pepper is a crop that has flourished in the Province of Jaén over the course of the last two decades. It was introduced by emigrant seasonal workers who previously travelled to the North of Spain to grow and pick it. Now, it is grown in the high meadowlands of the Guadalquivir in the Province of Jaén.

Two highly different ingredients make for a sophisticated dessert. This is an example of the new style of cooking established in the Cazorla, Segura y las Villas National Park, recovering traditional flavours and adding new ideas and products.