Calçotada: how to organise it, cook the calçots and prepare the menu

What does a traditional calçotada contain?

The meal starts with calçots and sauce. Grilled lamb and local longaniza or botifarra sausages usually follow, with side dishes, then desserts such as oranges or crema catalana, a Catalan custard dessert. This is the traditional menu described in the Valls Chamber of Commerce guide. You can adapt it to your group and offer vegetables and pulses as a second course.

Decide on the full menu before shopping. Quantities depend on whether you serve appetisers, the number of courses and your guests' appetites. Ask who will be trying calçots for the first time and who would prefer an alternative, so you can plan your shopping accordingly.

Shopping and setting up

Reserve the calçots for a specific date and ask how the bundles are presented. If you are looking for a certified product, check the label on the Calçot de Valls PGI. Add to the list the ingredients for the sauce, bread, accompaniments, dessert and drinks for everyone.

Prepare a grill suitable for cooking, tongs, trays, a system to preserve the heat of the batches and individual containers of sauce. At the table you will need bibs, napkins and a place to leave the skins. Leave access ready to wash your hands: it is a small detail that is appreciated between the calçots and the second course.

Make the sauce before lighting the fire

In our recipe for calçots sauce from Can Pepitu, the tomatoes and garlic are roasted, the tomatoes are peeled and everything is mixed with the other ingredients until the desired texture is obtained. It is a recipe passed down in the family and published on Calsotada.com.

Taste the sauce before serving and adjust its consistency so it clings to the calçot. Keep some aside to refill the sauce bowls during the meal. If someone needs a variation, check all the ingredients and discuss it before preparing one shared bowl. In our recipe book you will find the versions that we have been putting together.

How to cook calçots over the fire

In our cooking method we use vine prunings, the branches cut back from grapevines. They produce lively flames for grilling calçots. Arrange the onions so you can turn them and check each batch; grouping similar thicknesses makes cooking easier.

The outside should be black and the inside tender. Our original article suggests around 10 to 15 minutes, but this varies with the size of the calçots, the amount on the grill and the intensity of the fire. Check them before taking them off. Timing helps you plan; the texture tells you when they are ready.

Preserve the heat of the batches with food-grade material and bring them to the table without delays. To cook, use a grill and utensils intended for food and clean, untreated firewood: the original article itself already warned about dirty or treated pallet wood.

Distribute tasks and serve in batches

Keep the jobs simple: one person tends the fire, another prepares and removes each batch, and another takes the calçots to the table. Put out the sauce first so everyone can start eating as soon as the first batch comes off the grill.

Explain the gesture to whoever is new: hold the green part, remove the black skin and dip the tender part in sauce. Let each person eat at their own pace. When the first part is finished, remove the remains and organise the service of the second course. A little order leaves more time for conversation.

At home, in a restaurant or at the Valls festival

Each option has its charm. At home you participate in the preparation; in a calçotada restaurant you can relax and enjoy the meal; at the Gran Festa de la Calçotada de Valls you also discover the culture of the product and its contests. For the latter, consult the programme of the year you want to visit and distinguish public activities from restaurant reservations.

From the Calsotada.com archive

The experiences and original articles of Lisard Bellod, with their publication dates.

• Wine for a calçotada (2016)
• Calçotada & Twitts (2009)

Frequently asked questions