You roast peppers, eggplant, and onion until they collapse, then peel them and dress the silk with oil and a little vinegar. Nothing fried, nothing minced. The vegetables should taste of the fire they sat in — sweet, a little smoky, glossy on the plate.
Catalonia named it for the embers: escalivar, to roast in the coals. It is the quiet cousin of pan con tomate, eaten as a tapa, under grilled fish, or on toast with anchovy if you like. The oven will do, if you haven't a grill.
Don't rush the roast. If the skins don't blister, they won't peel, and you will fight the dish. Serve at room temperature. A Penedès white, or nothing at all.
Method
- 01
Heat the oven to 425°F, or light a hot grill. Rub the peppers, eggplants, and onions with a film of oil and set them on a tray. Roast until the pepper skins are blistered and blackened in patches, the eggplants have collapsed, and the onions yield to a squeeze, 40 to 50 minutes. Turn once. You want them truly done; pale vegetables will never peel and will never taste of the fire.
- 02
Tip the peppers into a bowl and cover so they steam, 10 minutes — that steam loosens the skins. Peel the eggplants and onions while they are still warm enough to handle. The flesh should be silk. Don't rinse anything; water washes away the roast. Tear the eggplant into strips with your fingers, not a knife.
- 03
Peel the peppers, pull out the seeds, and tear the flesh into wide ribbons. Slip the onions from their skins and cut them into wedges. Arrange everything on a platter in loose strands — peppers, eggplant, onion — so you can see each one. This is not a hash.
- 04
Dress with the remaining oil, the vinegar, and a generous pinch of coarse salt. Taste: it should be sweet, smoky, and bright. Finish with parsley and another thread of oil. Serve at room temperature, with bread. It will wait an hour if it must; it will not wait overnight and still taste of the fire.
