Manchego cuisine (Manchegan cuisine or Castilian-Manchego cuisine) refers to the typical dishes and ingredients in the cuisine of the Castilla–La Mancha region of Spain. These include pisto (a vegetable stew with tomato sauce), gazpacho manchego, Manchego cheese, the white wine of La Mancha, and the red wine from Valdepeñas (DO).
The dishes and specialties of the region are generally sober and sensible, reflecting a modest, rural origin. They contain a limited number of ingredients that tend to be those most easily accessible by the locals. Dishes tend to be high in calories, ideal for the diets of laborers, farmers, and shepherds. The cuisine of this area was popularized by Miguel de Cervantes in his early-17th-century novel Don Quixote, in which a number of traditional dishes are mentioned.[1]