Torta del Casar & Ibérico Tasting at Mercado de Abastos
The covered Mercado de Abastos on Plaza de Abastos is Plasencia's daily food market and the best single place in the city to eat and buy the region's extraordinary produce — above all the Torta del Casar, a raw-sheep's-milk cheese so ripe it must be eaten with a spoon straight from its own rind.
Torta del Casar: Extremadura's Liquid Gold
Torta del Casar has DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) status and is made only in a handful of villages near Cáceres, about 80 km south of Plasencia. The cheese is curdled with wild cardoon thistle rather than animal rennet, which gives it an extraordinary bitter-creamy depth and a texture that oozes like warm brie when you cut the top off.
Buy a whole torta from any of the cheese vendors inside the market, ask them to score the lid for you, and eat it at the bar next door with a glass of Ribera del Guadiana red and crusty pan de pueblo. This is the definitive Extremaduran snack and it costs around €8–12 for a full torta.
Ibérico Ham and Beyond
The market stalls also carry jamón ibérico de bellota from the Dehesa lowlands south of Plasencia — ask for slices cut to order rather than pre-packaged. Alongside it you'll find morcilla patatera (a distinctive local blood sausage made with potato and paprika), fresh chorizo and cecina (cured beef).
The market is liveliest Tuesday and Saturday mornings. Several bar counters inside the building serve tapas of local produce from around 10:00; it's perfectly acceptable — and deeply local — to have a glass of wine and a plate of cheese before noon.
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