Escudella i carn d'olla
The Catalan Christmas dinner, served as two courses from one pot: first broth with pasta, then the meats and vegetables on a platter. Its signature is the pilota — a single enormous oblong meatball, cooked whole and sliced at the table. The trick is that the pilota goes in only for the last 40 minutes: cooked longer it toughens, dries out and crumbles more easily, and the crumbs cloud a broth you have worked on for two hours.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Broth 150 min
- Pilota 25 min
- Cooking together 45 min
- Pasta 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCover the meats with cold water and heat slowly
Put the beef, chicken, knuckle and bones in a pot, cover with cold water and heat slowly until the surface trembles. Skim continuously for the first quarter hour — that is when most of it rises, and removed straight away it has no chance to cloud the broth.
Ingredients: 500 g beef chuck · 2 pcs chicken legs · 400 g pork knuckle · 2 pcs marrow bones · 4000 ml water · 2 tsp salt
A cold start and skimming through the first quarter hour.Simmer two hours without boiling
Cook 2 hours with the surface barely moving, adding the soaked chickpeas after an hour. Not one bubble — boiling emulsifies the fat and a broth meant to be golden and clear turns cloudy.
Ingredients: 500 g beef chuck · 2 pcs chicken legs · 400 g pork knuckle · 2 pcs marrow bones · 4000 ml water · 2 tsp salt
Work the pilota mixture
Moisten the breadcrumbs with 4 tablespoons of broth from the pot. Mix both minces with the breadcrumbs, egg, crushed garlic, parsley, cinnamon, salt and pepper and work for 3 minutes until the mixture turns tacky. Unworked, the meatball disintegrates into shreds in the broth.
Ingredients: 300 g minced pork · 200 g minced beef · 60 g breadcrumbs · 1 pcs egg · 3 cloves garlic · 3 tbsp parsley · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper · 3 tbsp plain flour
Shape one large oblong meatball
Shape a single large pilota like an elongated egg, about 18–20 cm long, and roll it in flour. Not several small ones — that is the whole point: the pilota is sliced at the table like a roast.
Ingredients: 300 g minced pork · 200 g minced beef · 60 g breadcrumbs · 1 pcs egg · 3 cloves garlic · 3 tbsp parsley · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper · 3 tbsp plain flour
One large, not several small — the pilota is sliced like a roast.Add the firm vegetables for 40 minutes
After the two hours, add the celeriac, carrots and potatoes — from now on everything cooks for another 40 minutes. Vegetables added at the start would turn to purée and cloud the broth with starch.
Ingredients: 250 g chickpeas · 500 g potatoes · 4 pcs carrots · 400 g white cabbage · 2 pcs leeks · 200 g celeriac
Lower in the pilota for the last 40 minutes
Right after the vegetables, gently lower the pilota into the broth and cook 40 minutes without stirring. The flour on its surface sets into a thin skin that holds it together. Do not touch it with a spoon for the first quarter hour. The pilota is done when the thickest part reaches at least 72°C and the juices run clear — minced meat must be cooked through.
Ingredients: 300 g minced pork · 200 g minced beef · 60 g breadcrumbs · 1 pcs egg · 3 cloves garlic · 3 tbsp parsley · ½ tsp cinnamon · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper · 3 tbsp plain flour
Cabbage and leeks at the very end
Add the quartered cabbage and the leeks for the last 15 minutes. Cooked longer, cabbage turns sulphurous and overwhelms the broth — fifteen minutes is enough for it to soften.
Ingredients: 250 g chickpeas · 500 g potatoes · 4 pcs carrots · 400 g white cabbage · 2 pcs leeks · 200 g celeriac
Cook the pasta in broth, separately
Strain about 2 litres of broth into a second pan and cook the pasta in it away from the main pot, so its starch cannot cloud the whole. Serve the broth with pasta first, then the meats, the sliced pilota and the vegetables on a platter.
Ingredients: 200 g pasta
Pasta in a separate pan — its starch would cloud the broth.
Before you start
Galets are the Christmas shells
Catalans use large shells called galets, and they are what people associate with the Christmas escudella. Ordinary large shells or conchiglioni work well — the point is that the pasta is large and traps broth inside.
Cinnamon in the meatball
Cinnamon in meat is often seen as a trace of old Catalan cooking, where warm spices went into savoury dishes as a matter of course. Half a teaspoon does not make the pilota sweet — it only gives it a warm note.
Three days and a second dish
The broth keeps up to three days in the fridge and is even better the next day. Catalans fry the leftover carn d'olla meats the following day with onion and tomato — that dish has its own name, roba vella, meaning ‘old clothes’.
