Where does Escalivada comes from?

This is one of the most basic dishes of Catalonia. The dish is very easy to prepare, and is formed by vegetables like eggplants, red peppers, onions or tomatoes, they were traditionally made cooked with the live coals of the fire and served with some olive oil. It sounds like a simple dish, but is absolutely delicious!

There is a great discussion around the ingredients of this dish. Because you can find people that say the Escalivada should only have garlic, eggplants and onions to people that say they even add potatoes to it.

There is also discussion about the American ingredients it also contains, like the tomato or the pepper. Nevertheless, I advise you to make your own innovations to the recipe and design your own version, is the funniest part.

Another advantage of this dish is that it has multiple applications, you can eat it as a salad for the first dish, to use it as garnish, usually with fish.

The last debate about this dish is about the spices with which we have to use: oregano, basil, mint, thyme, cardamom or cilantro. Don’t be shy! Try with all of them and choose the perfect one for you!

So, if the picture coughs your eye, and the description made you salivate, don’t doubt to continue reading and try this healthy and delicious dish!

What is the origin of Escalivada?

The name Escalivada, comes from the verb Escalivar, that in Catalonia language means cook with the embers and, although it can be served in different forms, we have taken the option of putting everything on the top of toasts and accompanied by anchovies. Is not easy to cook the vegetables with the embers so we are going to use the oven instead.

As we said before, the etymology of the word comes from the verb Escalivar, that is cook in the embers. Taking this into account we could say that some potatoes cooked in the embers are also escalivada, but the truth is that this dish is nowadays well known as a Catalonian dish and nowhere else.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggplants.
• 1 red pepper.
• 3 onions.
• 1 garlic head.
• 3 tomatoes.
• Virgin Extra Olive Oil.
• Salt
• Bread
• Anchovies

Time of preparation: 1 hour and 30 min.

How to cook Escalivada:

First step: Ingredients preparation.

Put the oven to heat up at 170 ºC before cooking.

Meanwhile we are going to wash and dry the eggplants, the red pepper and the tomatoes.

Now put some olive oil in the bottom of an oven tray and place the eggplants, the red pepper, the onions and the garlic head inside the tray.

Top Tip: don’t peel neither the onions, nor the garlics!! They will cook better and have a better taste with the skin.

Top Tip: do some cuts in the skin of the eggplants to avoid them to explode inside the oven.

Second step: Cook the vegetables.

When the oven is ready, put the try inside the tray with the vegetables and left them there for an hour.

When the hour is over, add the tomatoes to the tray, they need less time to cook, that’s why we place them an hour after.

Half an hour after, the vegetables should be properly cooked, but poke them to be sure.

Top Tip: when the vegetables are inside the oven, you should turn them over from time to time to let them cook homogeneously.

Third step: Preparing for the final step.

When the vegetables are ready, we should let them cool down to remove the seeds of the pepper and the eggplants. After removing the seeds, we should cut them into bands.

The same way, remove the external layers of the onions and chop them.

To take the garlic gloves out of the cooked head, you should press the head a little and they will get out alone.

Final Step.

Place all the prepared ingredients in a plate and add some salt and the cooked oil. Some people also add some drops of vinegar.

To try the dish, cut some slices of bread and toast them, spread some cooked tomato on the toast and a garlic glove. Now, put some bands of eggplant, red pepper, onion and anchovies on the bread. And you have your Escalivada ready to eat!!!