Calçots amb romesco
Long, sweet onion shoots charred black over a fierce fire, peeled with the fingers and dipped in romesco, a sauce of dried peppers, roasted tomato, garlic and nuts.
What makes it calçots amb romesco
- Calçots grilled over a hot, open flame until the outside is burnt.
- The charred layer slipped off by hand.
- Romesco or salvitxada to dip them in — ñora peppers, tomato, garlic and nuts.
Where it comes from
Calçots are onions replanted and earthed up as they grow, so the stems stay long, white and mild. The story in Valls is that a local farmer first grilled them over vine cuttings in the late nineteenth century — often told, and hard to check.
The calçotada is a winter-into-spring outing: calçots by the dozen, wrapped in newspaper to steam after grilling and eaten with bibs on, then grilled meat and sausages. Valls holds a festival for them every year.
How it varies
- Salvitxada
- The Valls name for the dipping sauce — close to romesco, and argued over as a thing of its own.
- Romesco
- Tarragona's sauce on its own, served with grilled fish and vegetables.
Be the first here
Start your own calçots amb romescoNo one here has made calçots amb romesco yet. Start it as v1, and every version after is an experiment the next cook can learn from.
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