Gastronomy of Sitges

Xató is Sitges' most typical dish. It appeared in the press for the first time in a report about Maundy Thursday published in the local newspaper Eco de Sitges the 16th of February of 1896. The report refers to a meal that three days before had gathered together a selected group of Catalan artists and intellectuals, Santiago Rusiñol, Miquel Utrillo, Gaietà Buigas and others. The name “xató” comes from an expression pronounced years before by Canudas, a member of the Rusiñol's group.

The main ingredients of xató are escarole salad, cod, tuna, anchovies and arbequine and black olives. However, the essence of the dish is its sauce, made with scalded chillies, toasted almonds, garlic, olive oil, salt, vinegar and hot peppers. The complete xató meal consists of some different omelettes or fricandó (a typical Catalan hot meal) and as a dessert coca de llardons (typical Catalan cake, made from pork scratchings). And to drink a good bottle of Penedès black wine.

Apart from the xató, there are some other typical dishes from Sitgetan cuisine, which turn fish into an unequivocal sign of identity. Rice in the Sitgetan way, stewed sepia with potatoes and all-i-oli (typical Catalan garlic sauce), bull de tonyina (typical sailors´ dish made with tuna fish), fideuà (typical sailors´ dish similar to paella, but with noodles and seafood) or stuffed peppers with cod. Such variety guarantees the extraordinary richness and singularity of our gastronomy.

As for drinks, malvasia is the most representative one. We are talking about an oloroso and delicate liquor wine, excellent for desserts. The name “malvasia” comes from the Peloponnesian port Monembasía. In Sitges, the Hospital Sant Joan Baptista continues producing and marketing malvasia according to the traditional method and for charity. The annual production is approximately of 4.000 bottles (produced by the vines owned by the Hospital). The Sitgetan malvasia is produced and matured in the wine cellars of the Hospital.