Tasting homemade in every bite

In the county of Osona (located 80 km north of Barcelona), the magnificent Plana de Vic has seen cereals being grown for centuries. Surrounded by the Pyrenees, snow-capped for a large part of the year, and exuberant vegetation, the plain is the epicentre of an ancestral tradition kept alive and improved day after day by Casa Tarradellas on finding the best solutions for daily meals.

Founded in 1976, the food company started as a family business to become a leader in the Spanish market in each category it is involved: pizza, fuet, pâtés and sliced meat products. The big change came in 1997, with the launch of the first chilled pizza in the Spanish market. Casa Tarradellas is now one of the top 10 brands in Spain and one of Jerónimo Martins’ suppliers. In every bite lies the unique taste of homemade that only the respect for each ingredient can provide. This flavour can be experienced in Portugal and Poland by Pingo Doce and Biedronka customers.

THE INFINITE CYCLE OF WHEAT

“From our wheat, our flour. From our flour, our fresh pizzas.” Casa Tarradellas is the only pizza producer in Europe that produces its own flour. It all starts in Winter. The freezing cold tells it is time for the cycle to restart. The humidity has achieved its optimal level. The seeds were carefully chosen. The land keeps them as a treasure to beharvested in June. When the grain finally sprouts, the field is painted in green and welcomes a new season, from which fair temperatures and rains are expected so that the wheat can grow strong.

In April, this green carpet covers the field and one can see the spikes. The harvest is getting closer. By the end of Spring, the wheat begins to dry, and the verdant tapestry gives space to a golden blanket. The crunching of the straw above the feet and its unmistakable smell. After almost nine months of wait, the moment has come to grind the cereal and obtain the flour. Stored in grain silos, the wheat waits a little more to be transformed. The wheat grain is cleaned to remove straw, dust and stones. Then, it is ground in various cylinders to break the grain and takes the flour inside. 300 tonnes of it are produced here every day.

GLUTEN AND LACTOSE-FREE PIZZA

The flour leaves the mill (which integrates a research centre) and travels to one of Casa Tarradellas’ five pizza factories. It is not a long trip, considering they are spread over a 20 square km area. There is where pizza dough balls are left to ferment and await the recipe that will give them personality: fresh or frozen, stone baked, ultra-thin and crispy, or with a stuffed base, family sized, medium or small, they come with plentiful toppings, from the classic ham and cheese to Italian-style carbonara. Despite their differences, all references have two more things in common: they are made with 100 % natural ingredients and a low quantity of yeast used to as a leavening agent. 9 varieties can be found anytime at Pingo Doce stores (but the number goes up to 15, with seasonal sorts) and 6 hit Biedronka shelves all year round (going up to 14, with temporary varieties).

Casa Tarradellas was the first in Spain to launch a gluten-free stone baked pizza of high quality at an affordable price.

In this big production compound, there is a mill solely for fresh dough and gluten-free pizzas. This is another aspect in which the company was also a pioneer: Casa Tarradellas was the first in Spain to launch a gluten-free stone baked pizza of high quality at an affordable price. Available at Jerónimo Martins’ stores in Poland and Portugal, it has ham, cheese, tomato and spices and is also lactose-free. “It is an inclusive pizza, in the sense that it is a pizza for the family. A family that includes and welcomes at the table its members who are gluten and lactose-intolerant. It is a pizza for everyone”, explains Josep Terradellas Falgueras, the company’s CEO.

Can you spot the difference?

This is a gluten and lactose-free tasty pizza produced by Casa Tarradellas for Biedronka and Pingo Doce. An inclusive one, for everyone.

A CIRCLE OF TRUST

Casa Tarradellas’ mission is making consumers feel “there’s no place like home” and home is where their products are from: “our origin, in a rural environment, surrounded by fields and with deep-rooted cattle tradition, gives us a culture of the product based on the ingredient. At Casa Tarradellas, we conceive that our pizzas begin in the field: from the cultivation of the wheat field, to the tomato strains that ripen in the sun in the Alentejo meadows”, says Josep Terradellas Falgueras.

Since 2009, these attributes have been deserving the Jerónimo Martins Group’s trust: “We share the values of quality, food safety, proximity, sustainability and the ongoing search for improvements. It is a circle of trust that we hope to keep prospering as a result of the good experience Jerónimo Martins has as a client of our pizzas, fuet and pâtés.”