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Calçotada

Meeting up with friends to eat charred onions. The long kind, almost ridiculously long. As many as you can manage. A bib is all you need. A rich, nutty sauce on the side. And, if you can, a porrón (a traditional wine jug for drinking straight from the spout) and good local wine.
A group of people gathered around a long outdoor table sharing a calçotada meal. The table is full of dishes, bottles of wine, and food leftovers, in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The scene takes place in a rural setting, with trees and fields in the background, while the diners chat and enjoy the moment.
Detail of a table after a meal, with half-full wine glasses, bottles, plates with leftover food, and a wine opener in the center. There is also a bowl with sauce, water glasses, and bread crumbs scattered over the white tablecloths, showing an informal atmosphere after eating.
Yes, it is hard to believe that in Catalonia one of our big winter gatherings involves meeting on a sunny day to eat chargrilled spring onions served on roof tiles. But that is where this Mediterranean tradition has ended up, and nobody here seems to question it.
A calçot is born. The rest is history.

Around 250 years ago, a farmer in Valls (Alt Camp) tried something simple: calçar onions, a traditional growing method where soil is gradually piled up around the stems as they grow. From that small, practical gesture came something that has become a winter ritual, with half the country now looking forward to the cold and the start of calçots season.

But it is not really about the onions, but about friends and family coming together and the pleasure of sharing food. Once everything is ready, the ritual is simple. The calçots are placed over an open flame, unwashed and untrimmed, then wrapped in newspaper so they finish cooking and stay warm. They arrive at the table still wrapped, often laid on a roof tile.

Then comes the important part: peeling them, dipping them in sauce, and eating them in a very particular way that combines technique and mess in equal measure. That is why the bib has become standard issue, unless you fancy leaving covered in soot and sauce. In the past, people simply wore whatever they had on and dealt with the aftermath as best they could, trying, at least, to keep a little dignity in the chaos.

A bundle of calçots on newspaper, placed on a table set with white tablecloths. Around it, dirty plates and a roll of kitchen paper.

Catalonia is probably one of the few places where wearing a bib and getting completely messy in public doesn’t raise an eyebrow.

A sauce that changes the whole thing

At first glance, a long chargrilled onion does not look like the obvious centrepiece of a shared meal, no matter how good the company or the conversation. But there is a reason it works: the sauce.

A mix made from simple ingredients that somehow turns into something far more special: ñora (dried sweet red pepper), roasted tomatoes and garlic, nuts (almonds and hazelnuts), bread, olive oil and vinegar. Blended into a thick, smoky, slightly nutty sauce that ties everything together. It is not just something you dip into, it is what makes the whole thing hard to stop eating.

It is called salvitxada, and it is the reason you end up messy, reaching for another, and suddenly realising you have lost count a long time ago.

An arm of someone wearing a blazer holding a calçot by the tip, against a neutral background.