Chef Isabel
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Ensalada Catalana con Embutits
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Ensalada Catalana is Catalonia's green salad made a meal: crisp lettuce, ripe tomato, onion, olives, and sliced embutits, dressed plainly with olive oil, vinegar, and salt.
Salads
Spanish
Weeknight
Picnic
Budget Friendly
25 min
Active Time
0 min cook•25 min total
Yield4 servings
Ensalada Catalana, amanida catalana in Catalan, belongs to Catalonia: a green salad made sturdy with embutits, the cured and cooked sausages of the region. Lettuce, tomato, onion, olives, fuet, and botifarra blanca or negra. That is what makes it this salad and not just leaves with cold meat scattered on top.
The method that decides it is small but it matters: dry the lettuce properly and season the vegetables before the embutits go on. Wet leaves make the oil slide off and leave the salad tasting thin. Salt the tomato and onion first, give them a few minutes, then dress with good olive oil and a little vinegar so the juices make their own honest dressing in the bottom of the bowl.
If you're far from Catalonia, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use the closest real substitutes: a good dry salami for fuet, plain cooked pork sausage for botifarra blanca, and blood sausage only if it is firm enough to slice cold. What changes is the perfume: fuet is lean, garlicky, and peppery, softer than chorizo and without the pimentón weight. No chorizo here. It belongs to other dishes, and it drags this one away from Catalonia.
Serve it soon after dressing, with bread beside it for the oil and tomato juices. This is weeknight food, picnic food, a full plate from a modest larder. Pésalo, no lo adivines, and don't drown it in vinegar. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Ensalada Catalana comes from the Catalan table, where a plain green salad becomes a meal through embotits, the preserved pork larder of the region. Fuet, botifarra blanca, botifarra negra, and related sausages belong to the same household logic as the matança, when every part of the pig was salted, cured, cooked, or stuffed so it could feed the family beyond the day of slaughter. The salad is not a festival dish so much as a practical one: fresh market vegetables on the bottom, the preserved larder sliced over the top.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
crisp lettuce, such as romaine, trocadero, or little gem
Quantity
250g
washed, dried well, torn into bite-size pieces
ripe tomatoes
Quantity
300g
cut into wedges
sweet onion
Quantity
80g
very thinly sliced
fuet
Quantity
80g
peeled if needed and sliced thin
botifarra blanca
Quantity
80g
sliced thin
botifarra negra (optional)
Quantity
60g
sliced thin
green olives, preferably arbequina or manzanilla
Quantity
50g
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
45ml
red wine vinegar or vinagre de Jerez
Quantity
15ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
4g, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| crisp lettuce, such as romaine, trocadero, or little gemwashed, dried well, torn into bite-size pieces | 250g |
| ripe tomatoescut into wedges | 300g |
| sweet onionvery thinly sliced | 80g |
| fuetpeeled if needed and sliced thin | 80g |
| botifarra blancasliced thin | 80g |
| botifarra negra (optional)sliced thin | 60g |
| green olives, preferably arbequina or manzanilla | 50g |
| extra virgin olive oil | 45ml |
| red wine vinegar or vinagre de Jerez | 15ml |
| fine sea salt | 4g, plus more to taste |
| freshly ground black pepper (optional) | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Salad spinner or clean kitchen towel
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Wide serving platter
- •Sharp knife
Instructions
- 1
Dry the lettuce
Wash the lettuce in cold water, then dry it very well in a spinner or clean towel. This is the step people rush, and it shows. If the leaves are wet, the oil cannot cling to them and the salad tastes watery before it reaches the table.
If the lettuce is tired, soak it in very cold water for 10 minutes before drying. It will crisp up enough for the salad. - 2
Soften the onion
Put the sliced onion in a small bowl of cold water for 10 minutes if it is sharp. Drain it well and pat it dry. You are not hiding the onion, only taking off the harsh bite so it sits with the tomato instead of shouting over it.
- 3
Season the vegetables
Put the tomato wedges and onion in a large bowl with the salt and vinegar. Toss gently and leave them for 5 minutes. The salt pulls a little juice from the tomato, and that juice is part of the dressing, not something to pour away.
- 4
Dress the greens
Add the dry lettuce and olives to the bowl. Pour over the olive oil and toss with your hands or two spoons until the leaves shine lightly. Taste a leaf and a tomato wedge. Add a pinch more salt or a few drops of vinegar only if it needs it.
- 5
Add the embutits
Arrange the dressed salad on a wide platter and lay the fuet, botifarra blanca, and botifarra negra over the top in loose folds and coins. Do not bury the embutits under the lettuce; they are the larder that makes the salad Catalan. Finish with black pepper if you like, and serve at once with bread.
Chef Tips
- •Buy the embutits sliced thin, but not shaved to nothing. Fuet should bend a little and taste of pepper and garlic, not of smoke and pimentón. If all you can find is dry salami, choose a mild one without paprika. It will be close enough in shape, but the flavor will be less Catalan.
- •Use ripe tomatoes only. If the tomatoes are hard and pale, lean more on lettuce, olives, and onion, or wait for better ones. A salad has nowhere to hide a sad tomato.
- •Dress just before serving. Lettuce collapses quickly once salt and vinegar touch it, and this salad should arrive crisp under the sliced embutits, not tired in a puddle.
- •For a picnic, pack the dried lettuce, seasoned tomato and onion, dressing, olives, and sliced embutits separately. Toss the vegetables and oil together when you arrive, then lay the sausages on top.
- •A young Catalan red, a dry rosat, or a cold beer suits it. Water is fine too. This is a home salad, not a ceremony.
Advance Preparation
- •Wash and dry the lettuce up to 1 day ahead; wrap it in a clean towel and refrigerate so it stays crisp.
- •Slice the embutits up to 4 hours ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator, then let them sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving so the flavor opens.
- •Do not dress the full salad ahead. The tomato and onion can sit with salt and vinegar for 10 minutes, but the lettuce should meet the dressing only at the end.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 240g)
Calories
335 calories
Total Fat
29 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
21 g
Cholesterol
45 mg
Sodium
1300 mg
Total Carbohydrates
8 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
12 g
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