Escalivada is Catalonia's smoke-grilled vegetable salad: aubergine, peppers and onions cooked over flame until charred, peeled, sliced, dressed only with olive oil and salt.

Escalivada (Catalan for 'cooked in the embers') goes back to medieval Catalan farm cooking, when vegetables were cooked in the dying embers of the fire overnight. The dish appears in 18th-century Catalan cookbooks: aubergines, red peppers and onions roasted whole until the skin chars, then peeled and sliced. The dressing is austere: only olive oil, salt and (optionally) an anchovy or sliced garlic on top. Barcelona's bistros run it as a summer starter from May to October, the vegetables straight from the Boqueria. Casa Amalia, Mont Bar and Bar del Pla all run textbook versions; modern rooms like Disfrutar deconstruct it into a tasting course.

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