Winter Salad Days: The Xató Salad
It’s rare that a salad achieves such culinary status, but the xató is a special salad indeed. It arrives each winter to a fanfare of festivals, competitions and more than a little local rivalry. This much-feted dish is made from escarole, a variety of lettuce that’s traditionally available only in winter, and other ingredients that were, historically at least, only readily available in the colder months, when fresh ingredients were harder to come by. The salsa is made from store cupboard ingredients like dried peppers, cookies and bread, while the three fish used are salt cod, anchovies and tuna, which are available year-round, dried or canned.
That the salad is named for the salsa, or vice versa depending on one’s perspective, shouldn’t detract from the importance of the escarole, which singer and food writer Pere Tàpias once referred to as the “queen of the kitchen in winter”. Escarole is rich in vitamins A and K, folate, fiber, iron, magnesium and calcium, making it ideal for a winter salad, when fresh vegetables are harder to come by. Escarole, like endive and radicchio, comes from the chicory family but is less bitter than its peers. It comes in two varietals, broad-leaved and curly (known in Catalan as fulla llisa and fulla arrissada), the second being finer and more highly valued in gastronomic circles. One kind in particular, called angel’s hair (cabell d’angel), and known in the Garraf by the name of la perruqueta, is often chosen for its sweet flavor. In fact, the outer, greener leaves of the head are often peeled away and discarded for being too bitter, leaving only the sweeter, creamy white leaves closer to the heart. However, the inner and outer leaves can be mixed to taste.
The exact provenance of xató is unknown, but its origins lie in the Penedès, the coastal wine-making region between Barcelona and Tarragona. Here, five towns make up a loosely defined Xató region: Sitges, Calafell, El Vendrell, Vilafranca del Penedès and Vilanova i la Geltrú. These towns work together to maintain the dish’s tradition and status, and promote it through the region and beyond. A xató route and accompanying website, raise the salad’s visibility and celebrate the culture, gastronomy and local traditions of each town, and the region as a whole. Six festivals dedicated to xató take place during the winter months in the five xató towns.
In 2015, the first annual masterclass for journalists was inaugurated, celebrating the salad and the regional nuances of its dressing. In this friendly competition, each town is represented by a local chef who teaches journalists how to make their specific version of the sauce. At the end, the sauces are tasted and the best is awarded a prize. In addition, the organization, under the name of Ruta del Xató, has created a network of restaurants in the area that serve the traditional xató salad or a tapa inspired by the dish, often accompanied by xató dressing.
The salad’s status is also promoted by famous chefs who serve two-year stints as its ambassadors, a tradition that began in 1988 with Ferran Adrià and continues today with Moments chef Raúl Balam Ruscalleda, son of the well-known chef Carme Ruscalleda, the owner of Restaurant Sant Pau in Sant Pol de Mar.
Like the salad itself, the exact origin of its name is also in dispute. The most widely accepted belief is that it derives from the Catalan aixeta, or tap. More specifically, the word is said to be related to the idea of aixetonament, the tapping of the wine barrels at first harvest, and coinciding with the kickoff of Carnaval. It used to appear just when the taps came out and the wine began to flow. The Ruta del Xató celebrates its uncertain origin with good humor, joking that it derives from the French château, playing on the name of Vilafranca, or invented by the fishermen from Vendrell. But regardless of its origin, it remains indisputably rooted in Catalan gastronomic culture and its lexicon.
The dressing for xató, called salsa xató, is a type of romesco, the sauce normally served alongside calçots and other roasted vegetables. The differences between the two reside largely in consistency, xató being thicker than romesco because it’s traditionally made by hand in a mortar. Purists would insist on this while many home cooks and chefs admit to using a blender or a food processor. Aside from the consistency of the salsa, the ingredients also differ slightly both between romesco and salsa xató, and among the five xató towns. There are many opinions about what can (and can’t) go into a xató sauce, but those with poetic leanings speak of its rich red color and the distinctive contrast created between the pale leaves of the escarole and the brightness of the salsa on top. As Roger Sanchez Amat pointed out, “Xató perfectly represents the Moorish influence: colors and flavors heightened through the presence of salty anchovies, tuna and olives, all seasoned with a kitchen mainstay, the Moorish ñora.” Unlike romesco, xató is made with ñora peppers, which give it a richer color and a slightly smoky flavor, and more sweet paprika for added color. Also, romesco relies on a heavy dose of vinegar which gives it its distinctively tart flavor.
There are pronounced differences among the local renditions of xató in both ingredients and flavor. The xató from Sitges uses only raw garlic, while down in Vilafranca, they combine both raw and roasted garlic, as well as Maria cookies. The xató from El Vendrell includes roasted onion, while that of Calafell uses romesco peppers in place of ñoras. Some salsas are meant to be drizzled on top, while others like that of Calafell is mixed with the lettuce before serving.
And so, this unusual dish, laden not just with Mediterranean flavors, but with tradition, local pride and plenty of good humor, arrives on tables in restaurants and homes across the region. Why not try our xató salad recipe for a taste of this seasonal Catalan in your home?
Xató Events
Every year from late November to mid-March xató festivals are held in the towns along the Ruta del Xató: Vilanova i la Geltrú, Sitges, Vilafranca del Penedès, El Vendrell i Calafell. Further updates can be found on the official Ruta del Xató website.
Originally published November 2016, updated January 1, 2023.