Calçots are a Catalan winter ritual: long, thin spring onions grilled black over a fire, peeled by hand at the table and dipped in red romesco sauce by the handful.

The calçotada was born in Valls (Tarragona) in the late 19th century: a farmer named Xat de Benaiges discovered that re-planting harvested onions and then earthing them up produced a tender, longer white shoot. By the 1940s the Valls Festa del Calçot was the centrepiece of Catalan winter food culture. The technique: grill calçots until black over vine cuttings, wrap in newspaper to steam, then peel each black layer back to reveal the soft inner. Dip in romesco (a sauce of dried nyora peppers, almonds, garlic, hazelnuts, bread, olive oil). Eat with the hands, head tilted back, wearing a bib. In Barcelona, the season runs January to March; restaurants run prefix-priced 35 to 50 euro calcotada lunches.

3 editor picks for Calcots with romesco in Barcelona, ranked by editorial score. All Barcelona signature dishes · Calcots with romesco across every city.