When the winter cold arrives, between January and April, it’s calçots season in Tarragona. It’s the time to enjoy a traditional calçotada. Whether with family, friends, or colleagues, this gastronomic experience is one of the most anticipated in Catalonia.
At TGNA, Tarragona Apartments, we know how to stand out from any hotel in Tarragona and offer you the opportunity to enjoy a truly special calçotada on one of the terraces of our apartments in the center of Tarragona.
Discovering Tarragona means immersing yourself in its history, gastronomy, and local traditions. Seafood dishes like suquet de peix from the Serrallo or the calçotada with romesco sauce are a must to experience our cuisine.
Similarly, the Camp de Tarragona is the true pantry of the city. The best ingredients for our restaurants are produced here. Thanks to our local commerce, Tarragona enjoys high-quality fruit, vegetables, fish, and meat. A real luxury for lovers of fine cuisine.
Calçotada in an apartment in Tarragona
At TGNA, Tarragona Apartments, we want you to feel at home. That’s why we offer you a gastronomic journey into the Mediterranean essence of Tarragona.
We encourage you to enjoy a calçotada on the terrace of one of our apartments in the center of Tarragona. You can choose between TGNA Llúria 11, Reding 22, Rambla 68, or Cervantes 8.
Although it may seem complicated, organizing a calçotada in Tarragona is easy. You just need to know where to buy cooked calçots or where to go to a specialized restaurant.
To prove it, we held a small calçotada on the interior terrace of TGNA Cervantes 8 and bought a bundle of 25 cooked calçots for €7.50 at Calçots Santacreu.
We accompanied this delicious calçotada with a romesco sauce from Fruits S&P and a Camí de la Font wine from Vinyes del Tiet Pere. A true celebration of Mediterranean flavors.
IGP calçots de Valls
First of all, it should be noted that the calçotada was born at the end of the 19th century in Valls, thanks to a farmer named Xat de Benaiges. One day, to change his usual lunch, he decided to eat some grilled onions, which eventually became a typical dish of Catalan popular cuisine.
Tarragona is a city full of history, where visitors are captivated by its ancient urban center and its rich Mediterranean side. In Tarragona, you can explore the city center, shop at the Mercat de Bonavista, or take a walk to the Tamarit Castle, passing by the calçots planted in the Hortes de Ferran along the way.
Near Tarragona, we find some of the best producers of IGP Calçots de Valls from Horta Blanch. With over 30 years of experience, they cultivate the finest calçots in Catalonia, available at their shop, greengrocers, and supermarkets in Altafulla and Tarragona.
Cooked calçots to take away in Tarragona
In Sant Salvador, near the Tarragona petrochemical complex, we find the family-owned company Calçots Santacreu, specialized in the cultivation and cooking of calçots to take away. They offer excellent quality at reasonable prices.
In Tarragona, it’s common to buy cooked calçots and finish the meal by grilling meat, a convenient option for families and groups of friends.
You can also find cooked calçots at the greengrocer El Racó del Pagès, in the Vall de l’Arrabassada, and at the shop El Corral de Boscos, specializing in homemade food to take away.
Calçotada at restaurants in Tarragona
In the Serrallo neighborhood of Tarragona, Restaurant Varadero offers a taste of calçots all year round, while Mas Roselló Restaurant and Piticuixa Restaurant offer a seasonal calçotada menu, with a usual price range of €40-50 per person.
For an authentic calçotada, the best option is to visit El Trull Restaurant, a small establishment offering Catalan cuisine and grilled dishes on Via Augusta, recently awarded as the best traditional dish on the show Joc de Cartes.
In addition to the more classic options, it’s worth highlighting the restaurants located in the industrial zones of Tarragona. Restaurants Molina and El Gordo 2 offer daily menus at competitive prices and, during the winter, they serve grilled dishes and… calçots.
Romesco sauce recipe for calçotada
Finally, we would like to highlight that every city center has a library, and our TGNA Cervantes 8 building is next to the Tarragona Library, which has over 175 years of history.
Taking advantage of its proximity, we visited the first floor of the library and consulted their Catalan cuisine recipe book. In this way, we’re sharing a romesco sauce (salvitxada) recipe, perfect to accompany the calçots of the season.
Ingredients:
- 1 head of garlic
- 200 grams of toasted almonds
- 200 grams of toasted hazelnuts
- 200 grams of ripe tomatoes
- ¼ extra virgin olive oil PDO Ciurana
- 100 grams of vinegar
- 4 nyores
- 1 teaspoon sweet red pepper
- Chili to taste
- 1 pinch of black pepper
- Salt
Preparation: first you will have to soak the nyoras and then you will have to separate the flesh from the skin. Second, you need to scale and peel the garlic and tomatoes. Finally, all the ingredients must be brought together to grind them with an electric arm.
Comments: the amount of oil or vinegar can vary depending on the taste of each person and there is the possibility of adding a little mint to flavor the sauce. The romesco sauce and the calçot sauce are not quite the same.
Uses: The dried fruit will stand out quite a bit in the sauce, so it pairs well with grilled or roasted vegetables, any blue or white fish cooked the same way or even steamed, seafood, and also cold meats. However, calçots, as the name suggests, are the most suitable vegetables to enjoy with this sauce. Just be careful with the amount of chili you add, depending on who will be using it.
