Enciam amb oli i un crostó de pa (lettuce with olive oil and crouton)
A few crisp lettuce leaves, a little salt, a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and a rubbed crust of country bread. It is less a recipe than an act of sobriety: cooking reduced to essentials, like a prayer.
A few crisp lettuce leaves, a little salt, a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and a rubbed crust of country bread. It is less a recipe than an act of sobriety: cooking reduced to essentials, like a prayer.
You watch me eat and you wonder, don't you? A leaf of enciam, a drizzle of good oli, a crust of bread — that's all I need. The body is but scaffolding: you load it no more than necessary to stand before the work. Our Lord fasted forty days; I ask only enough strength to raise another vault to Him. Eat little, my friend, and lift your eyes.
- •Market lettuce (enciam) — a few beautiful leaves (fresh bitter base)
- •Virgin olive oil from Catalonia — a good drizzle (fat, signature)
- •Sea salt — a pinch (seasoning)
- •Stale country bread — one crostó (crouton) (nourishing accompaniment)
Enciam amb oli i un crostó de pa (lettuce with olive oil and crouton)
A few crisp lettuce leaves, a little salt, a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and a rubbed crust of country bread. It is less a recipe than an act of sobriety: cooking reduced to essentials, like a prayer.
Why this dish? Toward the end of his life, Gaudí ate almost nothing but this: lettuce drizzled with olive oil, sometimes dipped in bread. His Lenten fast of 1894 nearly killed him. This near-nothing dish is the truest image of his asceticism as a builder turned toward heaven.
You watch me eat and you wonder, don't you? A leaf of enciam, a drizzle of good oli, a crust of bread — that's all I need. The body is but scaffolding: you load it no more than necessary to stand before the work. Our Lord fasted forty days; I ask only enough strength to raise another vault to Him. Eat little, my friend, and lift your eyes.
Ingredients (period version)
- Market lettuce (enciam) — a few beautiful leaves (fresh bitter base)
- Virgin olive oil from Catalonia — a good drizzle (fat, signature)
- Sea salt — a pinch (seasoning)
- Stale country bread — one crostó (crouton) (nourishing accompaniment)
Ingredients
- Romaine or batavia lettuce heart — 1 small, washed (base)
- Extra virgin olive oil (ideally from Spain) — 2 tbsp (signature)
- Fleur de sel — 1 pinch (seasoning)
- Country bread — 1 thick slice (grilled crouton)
- Garlic clove (optional) — 1/2 (to rub on bread)
Method
- Wash and carefully dry the lettuce, tear leaves by hand into a salad bowl.
- Grill the bread slice, rub with garlic if desired, cut into large croutons.
- Drizzle the lettuce with olive oil, sprinkle with fleur de sel, and toss gently.
- Arrange croutons on top and serve immediately, in silence if you want to be truly faithful to the master's spirit.
How it was made : In the late 19th century, oil-dressed salad was the quintessential lean meal on fast days. Local olive oil, often slightly green and bitter, was used, and stale bread was never thrown away: it was soaked or grilled. Gaudí pushed this frugality to extremes out of devotion.
The contemporary twist : A few shavings of aged sheep's cheese and a sprinkle of crushed walnuts turn the master's asceticism into a modernist starter, without betraying the spirit of oil and leaf.
Antoni Gaudí · Charactorium