Salad with Romesco Sauce (Xató de Sitges)

The Xató de Sitges is a romesco sauce typical of Sitges, a coastal town twenty minutes South of Barcelona by train. Xató is mostly used in an escarole salad, omelets, and fish. In Sitges you can find all the ingredients to assemble the salad at home: escarole (curly lettuce), red roasted peppers, arbequina olives, desalted codfish, anchovies and, of course, the xató sauce. Every year Sitges has a contest to see who can make the best Xató.

Ingredients:

escarole (if you find it) or mixed greens
2 anchovies
3 pieces of desalted cod fish
black olives
extra virgin olive oil
xató  

For the Xató:

12 toasted almonds

6 toasted hazalnuts

6 toasted pinenuts

1 walnut

1 small grilled onion

4 grilled tomatoes, peeled

1 small grilled garlic head (remove the skin after grilling)

1 garlic clove

the meat of 3 ñoras or the meat of a dried pepper. The pepper has to be rehydrated, or you can buy the meat of the peppers in a jar (1 tablespoon)

1 anchovy (optional)

1 teaspoon hot paprika

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

salt to taste

Put all the xató ingredients in a blender and purée. Then ensemble the salad starting with a layer of xató and a layer mixed greens or escarole. Then add the cod, red pepper and olives, drizzle some olive oil, and add more xató on the side.