Three Algarve villages, 12 typical recipes and a touch given by a professional chef. This is a simple way of describing the Algarteca project, whose aim was to preserve some of the region's gastronomic heritage and try to bring it to as many people as possible.
The company Tertúlia Algarvia, which coordinated the project, presented this Tuesday the CD with videos of the first twelve recipes and three films about the villages that inspired them, Estoi, Querença and Cachopo, already available online. But another 12 recipes are already on the way, which will be collected in the localities of Paderne, São Bartolomeu de Messines and São Brás de Alportel.
An idea that arose, according to João Amaro, from Tertúlia Algarvia, from the scarcity of typical Algarve recipes recorded, namely in video format and available on the Internet. «We considered that this project was important because the 
Algarve has a very valuable gastronomic heritage, which we felt was not properly inventoried», he explained.
The Algarve Regional Development and Coordination Commission started this work, with projects in the typical villages of the region, and some traditional recipes were registered in a book. Tertúlia Algarvia was inspired by this work and carried the idea to «a more current and accessible support for everyone, the Internet».
«Before we launched this project, we did a research and there were 12 or 13 recipes for typical Algarve dishes on the Internet. With these 12 there are already 25», since this week the production of 12 more videos is guaranteed to increase these numbers.
Tradition and simplicity with a gourmet touch
The recipes belong to all of us, they belong to the Algarve's cultural heritage, but the suggestions and contents are available on the Algarteca's website have been powered by experts in the field. The chefs of Tertúlia Algarvia innovated on these typical recipes and, despite having given them a modern touch, sought to preserve their essence in terms of base ingredients and taste.
In the videos of the Algarteca project, the image and voice is by chef Luís Parreira, who has now agreed to head to the United States to pursue his career. But the project remained very much alive, with chef Alexandra Caetano taking the reins.
«I took up the project after the first group of filming was filmed. But it wasn't difficult. These are recipes we all know, known to the Algarve. These are dishes that we want to highlight, make known. In this first phase 
we selected a few, but the project will continue and we will present more recipes from inland villages», said the Algarve chef.
According to Alexandra Caetano, what Tertúlia Algarvia sought was “to take the original recipes, keeping the same confection”. «We introduced some new elements, with some nutritional care, namely the presence of vegetables, which in the past were not very common and with a touch a little more gourmet. But always without detracting from the original recipe», he explained.
Those responsible for the project also wanted to keep things “simple” so that as many people as possible can reproduce them. «It's easy, they are simple recipes. We tried not to invent too much», he assured.
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