Coca de Escalivada

One of my favourite things to eat while in Barcelona is Coca de Escalivada. You could say that Coca de Escalivada is in some ways the Catalan pizza. You make a pizza like dough and add roasted veggies on top (usually onion, aubergine and red bell pepper but you can add anything you want really - anchovies, olives, potatoes…).

The “Escalivada” is usually done by grilling these veggies on a bbq but you can also do them in the oven, it will be perfectly fine. Making the escalivada does take some times as you have to first roast/grill the veggies and then peel them but it’s very easy work and while the veggies are cooking you can do something else.

If you don’t have much time but still want to know what Coca de Escalivada tastes like you can buy pre-made dough and you can also buy roasted red peppers so then you will just have to combine these two, add some onions and put it all in the oven. I definitely prefer making it from scratch but have also done it “the quick” way in the past.

Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Cooking Time: 65 Minutes + Rest

Ingredients for 4 cocas (each coca is around 2 portions):

• Red Bell Pepper - 1

• Aubergine - 1

• Onion - 1

• Olive Oil

For the dough:

• Wheat Flour - 400 g (2.5 cups)

• Lukewarm Water - 220 g

• Salt - 10 g

• Fresh Yeast - 5 g

• Olive Oil - 5 g

• Cane Sugar - 5 g

• Pepper

Optionals: you can add olives, anchovies or potatoes to your coca.

Preparation:

1. We start by pre-heating the oven to 180°C.

2. The next step will be the preparation of the coca dough. Dilute the sugar and yeast in warm water and mix in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

3. When they are mixed well together, knead on a clean counter for 15 minutes.

4. Store the dough in a bowl greased with oil, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size (around 1 hour).

5. While the dough rises, roast the vegetables. Clean the pepper and the eggplant and peel the onion. Grease the vegetables with a little oil, place them on a platter or tray and bake for 45 minutes.

6. Turn the vegetables halfway through so they cook evenly on both sides. Keep in mind that the baking time may vary depending on the size of the vegetables.

7. Peel, remove the seeds and cut the vegetables into strips once they are cold.

8. Preheat the oven to 230ºC.

9. Carefully remove the dough from the bowl and cut it into 4 equal pieces. If you don't want to make 4 cocas, you can freeze the pieces that you're not going to use.

10. Roll out the dough until it is 5mm thick. Paint it with olive oil. Top with the roasted vegetables. Bake the coca for 20 minutes at 230ºC or until the coca turns golden brown.