Mondeju, a special sausage

The mondeju arose from the millennial tradition of pastoralism. More than a century ago, when the shepherds of Aralar went down to the farms in the autumn, they wanted to profit from the sheep they were planning to remove from the flock. Hence they created mondejus to make better use of all parts of the sheep.

There are two kinds of mondejus — white (though yellowish and black). The original recipe for the white mondeju includes vegetables such as leek and onion, guts and latxa sheep fat.

Unlike black pudding, the mixture is bound with egg rather than with the blood. It’s seasoned with pepper and some people use parsley. In the case of the black mondeju, the egg is replaced by sheep’s blood.

The history of mondeju is also written by women, and its recipe has been passed down from mothers to daughters in many of the farmhouses in the Aralar area. When talking about mondeju, it is as essential to mention the work of the shepherds as it is to mention the women who have produced them and have kept their recipes generation after generation.

There are many ways of eating mondeju: it is mostly served simmered for about half an hour. Some people then use the broth as a soup, known as ‘Mondeju zopa‘.

The ‘Mondeju zopa’ is the first course on the typical autumn menu in the villages on the slopes of Aralar. The menu consists of mondeju zopa, mondeju, sheep stew and latxa sheep’s cheese.

Mondeju can also be eaten fried or roasted on a grill.

At the end of September, Amezketa holds a fair to highlight the value of mondeju and to keep alive the tradition, which is much more than a gastronomic tradition, of this almost exclusive product.

A fair where you can taste mondeju made by different producers, accompanied by wines from the Basque Country. In short, a festival to give the mondeju its place in Amezketa.