Esqueixada
“Catalan summer salad of hand-shredded raw salt cod, ripe tomato, sweet onion, black olives, dressed only with olive oil and vinegar — bacalao desalted but never cooked.”
Where it comes from
Esqueixada is a high-summer dish from the Catalan interior — Empordà, Vallès, Pallars — where salt cod was the protein available year-round before refrigeration. The technique of tearing rather than slicing predates modern knives; the verb esqueixar (to tear) gives the dish its name. The combination with tomato dates after the 17th century Columbian exchange tomato adoption. It's the canonical Catalan plat fred (cold dish), eaten under shade in July-August.
On the plate
Cool, almost translucent flakes of cod, firm and slightly squeaky against the teeth — a texture like fresh mozzarella, not raw fish at all. The tomato is sweet-tart, the onion bites back gently, the olives anchor everything in brine. Olive oil pools at the bottom and you mop it up with bread. If the cod tastes salty enough to wince, it was under-soaked; if it's fishy and grey, the bacalao itself was poor quality.
How it works
The whole dish is built around the texture distinction between desalted-but-uncooked cod and any cooked fish. Cod fibres in salt are partly denatured by osmosis; soaking rehydrates them without applying heat, leaving the protein structure firm and squeaky-textured. Hand-tearing follows the muscle's natural laminar grain — knife-cutting severs it and the cod loses both texture and the dressing-grabbing fissures. The 36-hour ceiling matters: past it, the fish goes mushy.
Catalan summer dish from Empordà, Vallès, Pallars. The verb esqueixar means to tear — knife-cutting severs the cod's laminar grain and loses the dressing-grabbing fissures. 36-hour desalt ceiling; past it the fish goes mushy.
Variations
Empordà adds black olives and roasted pepper strips; Pallars throws in white beans; Barcelona's xató variant from Sitges drops the cod onto a romesco-dressed escarole salad.
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · Show ↓20 min active · 1480 min waiting
How it's made
6 steps · Show ↓- 15 min
Place 400g thick-loin salt cod (bacalao) in a deep bowl, skin up. Cover with cold water and refrigerate. Change the water 3 times over 24-36 hours; thinner pieces need only 24h, thick loin closer to 36. Taste a flake at hour 24 — it should be lightly seasoned, not bland.
Watch outSkin-side up keeps the salt sinking out — flesh-side up traps it. The fish should never be soaked at room temp.
- 28 min
Drain and pat dry. Pull out any pin bones with tweezers. With your fingers, esqueixar — Catalan for tear into rough flakes along the grain, not knife-cut. Each shred 2-3cm.
Watch outKnife slices look wrong — the dish is named for the tearing motion.
- 38 min
Halve 2 ripe plum tomatoes, scrape out seeds and watery pulp, dice flesh into 1cm pieces. Slice half a sweet onion (Figueres if you can find it) into thin half-rings; soak 5 min in iced water to take the bite off, drain and dry.
Watch outWet onion or seedy tomato will leach water and dilute the dressing — dry both.
- 43 min
Combine cod, tomato, onion, 12 black Aragón or Empeltre olives, in a wide shallow bowl. Toss gently — the cod must stay in flakes, not pulverize.
- 52 min
Whisk 4 tbsp arbequina olive oil with 1 tbsp aged Cabernet or sherry vinegar and a few grinds of black pepper. Pour over. Toss once. NO SALT — the cod still carries enough.
Watch outTasting first before adding any salt is essential — most batches need none.
- 615 min
Rest 15 minutes at cool room temperature so flavors marry. Serve as a starter with crusty country bread or pa amb tomàquet alongside.
Watch outDon't refrigerate after dressing — cold dulls the olive oil.
