Penedès and Garraf, Catalonia
Xató is a winter salad from the Penedès and Garraf coasts of Catalonia — a carnival dish traditionally eaten during the Carnival season (February) based on salt cod and/or salted anchovies, chicory or frisée, black olives, and a sauce identical in technique to romesco but with its own regional variations in nut and pepper ratios. The xató sauce is the essential element: toasted hazelnuts, fried almonds, ñora peppers, garlic, tomato, and vinegar blended to a thick, rust-coloured sauce that coats the greens and fish in equal measure. Every village in the Xatodrome (the designated xató region) claims the definitive recipe. The competition is ancient and ongoing.
The sauce uses both hazelnuts and almonds — always both, never one alone. Ñora peppers must be soaked and scraped (not blended whole). The tomato is roasted on a dry pan until blackened on the skin. Fry the garlic and nuts separately before blending. The emulsification comes from adding olive oil slowly while blending. Salt cod must be properly desalted before use. The greens should be slightly bitter — frisée, escarole, or young chicory.
The xató sauce can be made 3 days ahead and improves overnight. Some cooks add a small amount of bread fried in oil for additional body. The ratio of ñora to almond to hazelnut is the defining variable across villages — Sitges uses more hazelnut; El Vendrell uses more almond. Serve with cava from the Penedès.
Using sweet peppers instead of ñora. Not roasting the tomato — raw tomato gives a sharper, less complex sauce. Serving on neutral salad greens — the bitterness of the leaves is the counterpoint to the rich sauce. Blending the sauce too smooth — some texture should remain.
The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden