Pastel de Centolla

Pastel de centolla is Patagonia's most iconic seafood gratin, a dish that turns the region's prized king crab into an elegant baked main. Cooked crab meat is folded into a creamy onion-and-white-wine sauce, spooned into individual gratin dishes, covered with mashed potato and grated Parmesan, and baked until golden and bubbling. It is served in every restaurant from Ushuaia to Puerto Madryn, and is the dish most visitors remember from Patagonia, the sweet crab meat and the rich gratin topping a perfect match for the cold southern climate.

Bubbling golden gratin of sweet king crab in a creamy sauce under a crisp Parmesan mashed-potato lid, the crab flavour sweet and delicate against the rich potato. Eaten hot from individual dishes, deeply comforting in the Patagonian cold.

The dish layers crab, sauce and potato. Cooked crab meat is folded into a white sauce of butter, flour, onion, white wine and cream, the sauce loose enough to spoon. The mixture goes into individual gratin dishes, topped with seasoned mashed potato, dusted with grated Parmesan, and baked at 200 degrees C until the top is golden and the sauce bubbling at the edges. The mashed potato acts as a lid, sealing the crab's moisture, while the Parmesan gives a crisp, savoury crust. The crab must be fresh, not canned, and the sauce must not overwhelm it — the ratio is roughly equal crab and sauce.