For hungrier diners, there is a regular menu of starters and mains involving some excellent ingredients typical of northern Spain, including the delicious, if expensive, pata negra ham.
They have sheep and pata negra pigs on their land, so I would start the feast with hand-cut shavings of pata negra de bellota with a beautiful glass of fino.
Recent dishes include milky haddock and scallops served with crispy-fried pata negra ham, black "venus" rice made with squid ink and a sea-tasting, foamy sauce.
WALK into many a Spanish bar and you will find this admonition among the proverbs inscribed on the wall: La mujer en casa, con la pata quebrada ("Keep the woman at home, with a broken leg").
Salsify and pata negra beignets lacked any sign of the ham or espelette pepper.
Mr. Ortúzar offers a dish of mackerel escabeche that is a good place to start, a kind of double-cooked ceviche on a bed of crisp paella with a blanket of the Ibérico ham known as pata negra.
Down in the historic center, the restaurant and wine bar Roscioli (Via dei Giubbonari 21; 39-06-687-5287; www.salumeriaroscioli.com; closed Sundays) offers pata negra, burrata, and other non-Roman delicacies, as well as local pasta specialties made with exceptional ingredients; the carbonara and cacio e pepe are among the best in Rome.
We started with a Parmesan sable, a delicate pastry that's essentially a savory shortbread, with artichoke and pata negra, the fine Spanish ham.
Here he makes croquettes with lobster and lardo from Spanish pata negra pigs, béchamel and sweet Saikyo miso.
Foreign fare is also on offer, including spicy tuna tempura (99 kroner) at Sushi Lovers (sushilovers.dk); plates of Spanish pata negra ham (60 kroner) at Tapa del Toro; and soft brie cheese from Melun, France (250 kroner per kilo), at Ma Poule, whose French-born owner, Edouard Cazazian, defected to Torvehallerne from Borough Market in London.
Lapitxuri serves a sandwich with Bellota pata negra cured ham for 7 euros.
