calçotada — Spain

Calçotada is the way calçots — a type of large, tender green onion — are cooked and eaten together at an open-air, communal grilling party. The onions are grilled whole and unpeeled directly over flames until the outer layers char black, then wrapped to steam through before being peeled by hand at the table. The dish is centred on Catalonia, particularly around the town of Valls, and the season runs mainly from late autumn through winter, peaking on the last Sunday of January when a large public grilling gathering takes place. The onion itself is grown by mounding soil around the stalks as they grow, which blanches and lengthens the white part. To prepare it, whole calçots are laid over a wood or vine-clipping fire until the skin is fully blackened, then bundled and covered with newspaper or cloth for a few minutes so the inside finishes cooking in the trapped heat. Guests peel back the charred outer layer with their fingers, exposing the soft, sweet onion inside, and dip each one into a thick almond-and-tomato romesco sauce before eating it by hand. What varies from one gathering to another is mainly the dipping sauce and the rest of the meal served alongside: romesco is the most common accompaniment, though some cooks favour a plainer allioli, and the grilled onions are often followed by grilled meats or sausage cooked over the same fire. The grilling and hand-peeling ritual is what stays constant wherever the calçotada takes place.