Romesco Sauce
Romesco Sauce - kvalifood.com
A Catalan sauce from the Tarragona coast built on roasted tomatoes, dried nora peppers, toasted almonds and hazelnuts, garlic, fried bread, olive oil, and vinegar. Originally a fisherman’s sauce, now most associated with calcotadas (spring onion festivals).
Makes ca. 400-500 g (4-6 servings)
Ingredients
- 500 g ripe tomatoes, halved
- 1 whole head garlic
- 3 dried nora peppers (or 2 dried ancho chillies)
- 1 slice stale crusty bread
- 40 g blanched almonds
- 30 g hazelnuts, skin on
- 80 ml extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
- salt, to taste
- 1 pinch sweet paprika (optional)
- 1 pinch cayenne (optional)
Directions
Remove stems and seeds from nora peppers. Cover with boiling water and soak for at least 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 190C. Place tomato halves cut-side up on a baking tray. Slice the top off the garlic head. Place on the tray. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast for 45-50 minutes until tomato skins are blistered and garlic is soft.
Toast almonds and hazelnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Rub hazelnuts in a towel to remove skins.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and fry the bread slice until golden on both sides. Break into pieces.
Remove rehydrated nora peppers from water. Scrape the soft flesh from inside the skins with a spoon. Discard skins.
Peel the roasted tomatoes and squeeze garlic cloves from their skins into a food processor. Add nora pulp, fried bread, toasted nuts, remaining olive oil, vinegar, and salt. Blend until mostly smooth with a slight graininess from the nuts.
Taste and adjust salt, vinegar, and oil.
Notes
Bell peppers are not traditional romesco. Nora peppers are the correct dried pepper.
The bread serves as a thickener and emulsifier. It is essential, not optional.
The sauce should not be uniformly smooth. A slight texture from the nuts is traditional.
Keeps refrigerated for up to 1 week. Freezes well for 2-3 months.
See Also
Escabeche (Spanish Vinegar Marinade)
Mojo Verde (Canary Islands Green Sauce)
Ajada (Galician Garlic and Paprika Sauce)
Alioli (Traditional Spanish Garlic and Olive Oil Emulsion)
