About Mesa de Portugal

Mesa means table. In Portugal, it's where everything happens: long Sunday lunches, petiscos with friends, a pot of caldo verde in the middle and everyone reaching across. Portuguese food is simple food done carefully: good olive oil, too much garlic, salt cod soaked for two days, potatoes punched open and drowned in azeite. You don't need a restaurant kitchen to cook it, but a few specific tools make it a lot easier.

This site does two things. It gives you recipes for the dishes people miss most once they leave Portugal (or fall for on holiday), including air fryer versions of the ones that normally need a pot of hot oil. And it explains the kit: what a cataplana is for, why the clay chouriço grill exists, and what size air fryer actually fits a family dinner.

How we recommend things

Most of what we recommend is made in Portugal or by Portuguese brands: Bordallo Pinheiro, Costa Nova, Vista Alegre, Cutipol, Nuri, Comur, Delta and the clay makers. The rest are well-reviewed Amazon best sellers that make the recipes faster. When a cheap option or something you already own does the job, we say so.

Who's behind it

Mesa de Portugal is made in the Algarve by PG App Studios, the team behind Portugal Lifestyle Pro, an app for learning European Portuguese.