Xató
A winter salad from the Garraf and Penedès areas south-west of Barcelona, around which whole feasts called xatonades are organised. Its heart is the sauce — thick, brick red, made from almonds, hazelnuts and dried nyora peppers. Two rules decide the result: the sauce must be as thick as mayonnaise, since it has to cling to the leaves rather than run to the bottom of the bowl, and it is tossed with the leaves only at the last moment — dressed too early, the endive softens and loses its crunch.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Desalting the cod 720 min
- Xató sauce 50 min
- Assembly 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneDesalt the cod overnight
Cover the cod with cold water and keep in the fridge 12 hours, changing the water three times; thick pieces may need 24–36 hours. In xató the cod is served raw, so the desalting must be complete — taste a piece before going further.
Ingredients: 2 pcs curly endive · 200 g salt cod · 150 g tinned tuna · 8 pcs anchovy fillets · 80 g black olives
Soak the dried peppers and scrape the flesh
Cover the nyora peppers with boiling water and soak 30 minutes, then split them and scrape the flesh from the skin with a teaspoon. The skin cannot be pounded smooth — left in, it gives hard, unpleasant fibres.
Ingredients: 60 g almonds · 60 g hazelnuts · 3 pcs nyora peppers · 3 cloves garlic · 40 g bread · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 180 ml olive oil · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp salt
Pound the nuts in a mortar
Pound the toasted almonds and hazelnuts with the garlic and salt to a coarse but uniform paste. A mortar gives a sauce with visible structure; a blender crushes the nuts smooth and the sauce loses its character.
Ingredients: 60 g almonds · 60 g hazelnuts · 3 pcs nyora peppers · 3 cloves garlic · 40 g bread · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 180 ml olive oil · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp salt
Almonds, hazelnuts, garlic and salt — coarse but even.Add bread soaked in vinegar
Soak the bread in the vinegar and add it to the mortar with the pepper flesh and the paprika. The bread thickens the sauce and helps the oil bind into it.
Ingredients: 60 g almonds · 60 g hazelnuts · 3 pcs nyora peppers · 3 cloves garlic · 40 g bread · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 180 ml olive oil · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp salt
Add the oil slowly, pounding all the while
Pour in the oil in a thin stream, working the pestle in one direction throughout. It takes about 10 minutes. This is an emulsion like mayonnaise: oil poured too fast will not take and the sauce separates into oil and sediment.
Ingredients: 60 g almonds · 60 g hazelnuts · 3 pcs nyora peppers · 3 cloves garlic · 40 g bread · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 180 ml olive oil · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp salt
A thin stream, one direction — exactly like mayonnaise.Bring the sauce to mayonnaise thickness
The sauce should be as thick as mayonnaise and hold its shape on a spoon. If thinner, add more nuts or bread. A thin sauce runs off the leaves to the bottom of the bowl and the salad is dry on top.
Ingredients: 60 g almonds · 60 g hazelnuts · 3 pcs nyora peppers · 3 cloves garlic · 40 g bread · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 180 ml olive oil · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp salt
Dry the endive very thoroughly
Wash the endive, tear it into pieces and dry it thoroughly, ideally in a spinner. Water on the leaves thins the sauce so that it runs instead of clinging — a common cause of a failed xató.
Ingredients: 2 pcs curly endive · 200 g salt cod · 150 g tinned tuna · 8 pcs anchovy fillets · 80 g black olives
Toss by hand just before serving
Pat the cod dry and pull it into shreds with your fingers; drain the tuna of its oil. Toss the leaves with the sauce by hand until every one is coated and immediately arrange the cod, tuna, anchovies and olives on top. Serve at once — dressed endive softens quickly.
Ingredients: 2 pcs curly endive · 200 g salt cod · 150 g tinned tuna · 8 pcs anchovy fillets · 80 g black olives
By hand and at the last minute — endive softens fast.
Before you start
Nyora, not hot chilli
Nyora (Spanish ñora) is a small, round, sun-dried sweet pepper grown mainly in Murcia and Valencia, fruity and faintly bitter, with no heat. Failing that, use dried choricero peppers or a spoonful of choricero paste — never a hot chilli, since the sauce should be mild and nutty.
A close relative of romesco
Xató, romesco and salvitxada are three variants of the same Catalan family of nut and dried-pepper sauces. Xató sauce is usually thick and clearly vinegary, since it must cling to the leaves; romesco goes with fish and grilled vegetables, salvitxada with grilled calçots onions.
Making the sauce ahead
The sauce alone keeps up to 4 days in the fridge, in a jar under a film of oil — raw garlic in oil should not be kept longer. Take it out half an hour before serving — cold it is so thick it cannot coat the leaves, and forcing it breaks them.
