Calçot ✦

Calçot

What it is

Calçar means to earth up, and that is the whole trick: an onion is replanted and soil heaped around the shoot all winter so it runs long and white. Valls in Catalonia credits the invention to a nineteenth-century farmer nicknamed Xat de Benaiges, and holds a calçotada every winter to say so.

In the kitchen

Burn them black over vine cuttings - you want char, not colour - then wrap the bundle in newspaper for fifteen minutes so the inside steams. Pull the burnt sheath down and off, dip the white in romesco, and eat with your head tipped back.

Goes with

Almond Hazelnut Olive oil Garlic Ñora pepper Tomato Sherry vinegar Chili pepper

Same species

Arleux smoked garlic Banana shallot Black garlic Cévennes sweet onion Chives Cipollini onion

In season alongside

Pauillac lamb Japanese tilefish (amadai) Arbutus berry Bettarazuke Cabbage Cauliflower

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