Verified in 2 cities.
Xato is a Catalan winter salad from the Sitges coast: salt cod, anchovies, tuna and olives on lettuce, dressed with a thick romesco-style xato sauce made from peppers and almonds; in Spain we have verified places to eat it in Barcelona and Salou.
Xato is a Catalan winter salad from the Sitges coast: salt cod, anchovies, tuna and olives on lettuce, dressed with a thick romesco-style xato sauce made from peppers and almonds.
Xato originated in the Sitges and Vilanova fishing villages southwest of Barcelona in the 17th century, when winter salt cod was the dock-worker staple and the local nyora peppers, almonds and hazelnuts made up a rust-coloured sauce called xato (or 'chato'). The sauce is a romesco cousin: nyora pepper pulp, toasted almonds and hazelnuts, garlic, bread, oil and vinegar, blitzed to a thick paste. The xatonada tradition is the post-Christmas weekend xato lunch served from January to March at Vilanova, Sitges, Vilafranca and El Vendrell. Barcelona's Casa Amalia and 7 Portes both run a version through winter.
Where to eat in Barcelona:
Where to eat Xato in Barcelona: the editor picks
Xató is a winter salad of curly endive with salt cod, anchovies and tuna, dressed in a romesco-family sauce of nyora pepper, toasted almonds and hazelnuts, garlic and vinegar.
Xató belongs to the romesco family of sauces and to the wine country south of Barcelona: the Penedès and Garraf towns of the "xató route" each keep their own recipe. Its origin is placed in the ceremony of tapping the new wine barrel, when farmers and fishermen ate salty fish with winter greens and a special sauce. In Salou, Boquet puts a salt cod xató with romesco and anchovies on its set lunch.
Where to eat in Salou:
Where to eat Xató in Salou: the editor picks
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