Spanish

Escalivada Catalana

Eggplant, red pepper, and yellow onion roasted whole in a 220 °C oven until the skins blister and blacken, then steamed in a covered bowl for twenty minutes so the skins slip off in sheets. Peeled, hand-torn into strips, dressed with Arbequina, sherry vinegar, and flaky salt. Eaten cool with anchovy, jamón, or simply on pan amb tomàquet. The vegetable dish that taught me what a vegetable can be.

+ Pin to:

Appetizer · Tapa · Side · Base (for coca, empanada, tartines)
·
Vegetarian (becomes omnivore with anchovy / jamón / fig service)
·
6 as tapa · 4 as side · base for 8 portions of coca de recapte · keeps 4 days refrigerated
·
1 h 35 min (1 h roast · 20 min steam-rest · 15 min peel/dress)

The Catalan Fire Doctrine — When a Vegetable Is the Point

The word escalivar in old Catalan means 'to cook in the ashes.' It is the same root as the Spanish cautivar — to capture, to hold captive. Escalivada is therefore, by etymology, a vegetable taken captive by fire. Roasted whole in hot ashes until the skin blisters and the flesh inside collapses into a smoky, silky, sweet concentrate. The technique is pre-industrial — it predates ovens, it predates sauté pans, it predates even cookware. Cavemen discovered escalivada when they dropped eggplants in a fire and fished them out the next morning.

What you are making in a Bosch convection oven at 220 °C is the domestic version of this ancestral technique. It will not have the full smokiness of vegetables pulled from living charcoal — that version is made in a kamado, and it's better, and it's recipe #2 below in the Kamado-Finished variant. But the oven version is the weeknight version, the make-ahead version, the "I am having 12 people over Saturday and need base product Wednesday" version. And it is 80 percent of the way there.

What matters is that the vegetables are roasted whole. Not sliced, not cubed, not prepped. Whole eggplants, whole red peppers, whole onions — skin on, stem on, oiled and salted, laid on a sheet pan, in a hot oven for an hour. The skins become the insulation; the flesh inside steams in its own moisture while absorbing a subtle char from the blistering skin. When you pull them out and cover with a towel for twenty minutes, the residual steam finishes the cook and loosens the skins from the flesh. Peel, tear, dress, done.

This is a make-ahead dish. The flavor deepens over 24 hours. Escalivada made Thursday for a Saturday dinner party is better than escalivada made Saturday afternoon. The smoky sweetness compounds in the fridge.

Ingredients

for 6 as tapa · 4 as side · base for 8 portions of coca de recapte · keeps 4 days refrigerated

0 of 30 pulled

Everyday

Italian eggplants — 2 large (600-700 g each)
Red bell peppers — 3 large
Yellow onions — 2 large, skin ON (really — skin protects the flesh during roast)
Whole ripe tomatoes — 3 medium (optional, traditional in some regions)
Extra virgin olive oil — 60 ml (to coat vegetables before roasting)
Kosher salt — 2 tsp (to salt the vegetables before roasting)

Extra virgin olive oil — 120 ml (for finish)
Sherry vinegar — 2 tbsp
Garlic — 2 cloves, very finely minced
Maldon flaky salt — to finish
Fresh parsley, finely chopped — 2 tbsp (garnish only)
Freshly cracked black pepper — to taste

Anchovy fillets in olive oil — 8-12, one per portion
Sliced jamón serrano — 80 g
Hard-boiled eggs — 2, quartered
Toasted sourdough or pan amb tomàquet

No Limits

Graffiti (striped) or long thin Catalan eggplants — 3-4 medium, firmer flesh, less bitter, holds shape
Spanish red peppers (Pimiento de Gernika or romesco-style) — 4, thicker walls than bell
Sweet Spanish onion (Dulce de Fuentes or Torrecita del Valle) — 2 large, skin on
Heirloom ripe tomatoes on the vine — 3-4 medium (traditional)
Arbequina EVOO, current harvest — 60 ml for roast coat
Flor de sal de l'Empordà — 2 tsp for the roast

Castillo de Canena Arbequina or Núñez de Prado Arbequina — 120 ml for finishing dressing
Aged sherry vinegar Reserva — minimum 6 years, González Byass or Valdespino. 2 tbsp
Las Pedroñeras purple garlic — 2 cloves, minced ultra-fine
Flor de sal de l'Empordà — to finish

Anchoas de Santoña del Cantábrico 00 oz — L'Escala or Don Bocarte, premium salt-cured anchovies. 8-12 fillets.
Jamón ibérico de bellota 5J — hand-carved if possible, 80 g
Huevos de corral — pastured eggs, hard-boiled, quartered
Pan de Coca (dry Catalan flatbread) or Flour & Weirdoughs country loaf as the base

Mise en Place

0 of 6 prepped

Pre-heat oven to 220 °C convection.
Wash the vegetables, pat dry. Leave stems on, skin on. Do NOT cut anything.
Prick each eggplant 4-5 times with a fork or paring knife tip — this lets steam escape during roast and prevents blowouts.
Place all vegetables on the sheet pan with space between them (overlap = uneven roast).
Drizzle with 60 ml EVOO, sprinkle with 2 tsp kosher salt, roll the vegetables to coat.
Have the steam-rest bowl ready — large enough to hold all the vegetables with a plate-lid on top.

Method

0 of 25 done

Phase 1 — High-Heat Whole Roast (60 min)

Oven at 220 °C convection.

On a large sheet pan, lay out whole eggplants, whole red peppers, whole onions (skin on), and whole tomatoes if using. Drizzle with 60 ml EVOO. Sprinkle with 2 tsp kosher salt. Roll to coat evenly.

Roast 60 minutes , rotating the pan front-to-back at the 20-min mark for even char.

Target: skins of peppers and eggplants should be blackened and blistered over most of the surface. Eggplants should feel completely collapsed when pressed with tongs — they should sag under their own weight. Onions should have deep caramel-colored patches through the outer skin.

Peppers often finish before eggplants (thinner wall) — pull them early if fully charred, return the rest to finish.

Tomatoes, if using, will soften and char. Pull when skin splits.

Phase 2 — Steam Rest (20 min) — Critical

Transfer the hot vegetables to a large heatproof bowl. Cover with a plate or tight-fitting lid. Let sit 20 minutes undisturbed.

This step does two things: (1) the retained steam finishes the cook, especially on the interior of onions and any thicker vegetables, and (2) the steam loosens the skin from the flesh, so peeling by hand becomes trivial.

DO NOT skip this or rush it. Vegetables that are peeled immediately out of the oven require a knife (damaging flesh) or rinsing under water (wet flavor dilution). Steam-rested vegetables peel with fingers and a towel.

After 20 minutes, the vegetables should be warm, the bowl slightly damp with steam, and the skins visibly loose from the flesh.

Phase 3 — Peel, Tear, Dress

Work over a bowl or the same sheet pan (catching juices — you want these in the final dish).

Eggplant: pinch the stem-end skin between thumb and forefinger and pull. Whole skin sheets off in one or two strips. Discard stem and most of the skin. Tear the flesh into rough 1 cm wide strips with your fingers, NOT a knife. The torn edge is the Catalan cue. Flesh should be ivory-brown and meltingly soft.

Peppers: remove the stem (it pulls out with the seed core). Split the pepper open, scrape out remaining seeds with a thumb. Peel off the blackened skin — it should slip off in large sheets. Tear the flesh into 2 cm wide strips.

Onions: peel off the papery/blackened outer layers. Cut the root end off. Slice the onion vertically into thick wedges (1 cm). The layers separate beautifully. Don't worry about perfect cuts — rustic is correct.

Tomatoes (if used): peel, discard skin, squeeze out seeds, tear flesh.

Pile the torn vegetables loosely on a serving platter.

NEVER wash the vegetables under running water. That is the only way to ruin escalivada — water dilutes the concentrated flavor that the roast built up. If there are small flecks of black skin stuck to the flesh, they stay. They add flavor, not visual flaws.

Phase 4 — Dress + Rest + Serve

Whisk together: 120 ml EVOO + 2 tbsp sherry vinegar + 2 cloves very finely minced garlic + 1/2 tsp flaky salt + pepper.

Pour the dressing over the arranged vegetables on the platter. Do not toss vigorously — gentle folding only. Some vegetables can stay separate (peppers visible, eggplant visible) rather than blended into a mass.

Rest 15 minutes at room temperature before serving. This lets the dressing soak in and the flavors marry.

Service options: - As tapa: drape an anchovy fillet across each portion, serve with toasted bread

- As base for coca de recapte or empanada: chill and use as filling

- As side: plate simply next to grilled fish or meat

- With jamón: arrange a few slices of jamón ibérico alongside the escalivada, let guests combine bites themselves

Garnish with a final scatter of flaky salt and fresh chopped parsley just before serving.

Timeline

-1h 35min Preheat 220 °C convection; prick eggplants; coat with oil + salt
-1h 30min Sheet pan into oven, 60 minutes
-40 min Rotate pan (front-back swap) to ensure even char
-30 min Check peppers — may be done early if thin. Remove peppers if skins are fully blistered.
0:00 Pull full pan. Vegetables should be blistered, blackened in patches, fully collapsed
+0:02 Transfer to large bowl, cover with a plate, steam-rest 20 min
+0:22 Peel + stem + seed + tear into strips
+0:30 Mix dressing, dress the strips, rest 15 min before serving
+0:45 Plate with service accoutrements