A FEAST OF CALÇOTS WITH ROMESCO

Calçots are in between a fat spring onion and a baby leek. In Catalonia, the best calçots start around December and go on for 2 or 3 months. There is a festival (calcotada) in January and a competition in Barcelona to see who can eat the most calçots: someone recently ate close to 300!

The traditional way to cook calçots is to burn them over charcoal until they are completely black. Then you wrap them in newspaper and seal them in a box – this loosens the charred outside and cooks the inside a bit more. To eat them, unwrap them, squeeze the bottom of each calçot with one hand, pull the inside out from the top with your other hand, then drop it into your mouth. It’s messy – when you go to eat calçots in a restaurant, they make you wear a bib. The flavour is smoky and juicy … so much better than blanching and grilling. It’s the best thing. Having a calçot festival at home is such a fun thing to do – you can cook and eat as many as you like.

There are lots of different types of romesco sauce: some people use hazelnuts too, but I normally just use almonds. You need to make around 500g or it just doesn’t blend together properly. Any extra romesco can be kept covered in the fridge for up to 4 days – it goes with pretty much anything, so it won’t last long.

calçots – allow around 8–10 per person

For the romesco (makes around 500g)

3 whole heads of garlic

250ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the garlic, tomatoes and bread

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

200g whole blanched almonds

6–8 fresh ripe plum tomatoes

2 slices of stale bread

1–2 dried chillies (depending on their size), soaked in warm water for a couple of hours

3–4 dried choricero peppers (depending on their size), soaked in warm water for a couple of hours

100ml sherry vinegar

First, you need to roast all the ingredients for the romesco. Preheat the oven to 170–180°C. Cut the garlic in half crossways and place it on a large piece of foil. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper and fold over the foil to close. Roast for 20 minutes, until very soft, then squeeze out all the cloves.

Put the almonds on a baking tray in a single layer and roast in the oven until light golden brown (around 6–7 minutes).

Remove the core from the tomatoes with a small knife, place on a roasting tray with a good drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast for 8-10 minutes. The tomatoes will start to break down and lose their liquid and the juices will colour with the olive oil.

Put 1cm of oil into a pan on a medium heat and fry the bread until golden brown on both sides – it should be toasted and have absorbed all the oil.

Put the tomatoes (with their skins) into a blender with the garlic, chillies and choriceros, the 250ml of olive oil and the vinegar, and blend to make a dark, thick paste. Rip up the toasted bread and add along with salt, pepper and the almonds. Pulse to blend, so that it comes together but you keep some texture – if you want it to be creamier, keep blending. Keep it warm until you need it.

To cook the calçots, fire up your barbecue. As soon as you have flames, add the calçots and cook until the outside layer is blackened and burnt. Remove from the barbecue, wrap in newspaper and leave them to sit for 20 minutes – they will continue to steam, cooking inside the paper.

Unwrap, take a calçot and hold it by the green end, then pull the top two burnt layers down over its head and discard: you will be left with the soft, sweet interior. Dip this into the romesco, then dangle it down into your mouth and eat. Repeat!