Piquillo pepper sauce DOP

Ingredients

• 290 g DOP Pimientos del Piquillo from Lodosa, in a jar
• 1 piece yellow onion
• 2 cloves fresh garlic
• 3 tbsp Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
• 120 g Spanish fried tomato sauce
• 6 cl dry white wine
• 12 cl lightly salted vegetable broth
• 8 cl heavy cream
• to taste fine salt
• to taste ground black pepper

Method

1. Drain the Pimientos del Piquillo, reserving their juice separately. Quickly open them with your fingertips to check for any remaining seeds, then place them on paper towels. They should remain supple and meaty, not dried out.
2. Finely slice the onion and lightly crush the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over low to medium heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and sweat it slowly without browning, until translucent, very soft, and slightly sweet-smelling.
3. Add the garlic and stir over low heat until it perfumes the oil. It must not color: as soon as the aroma becomes round and sweet, move on to the next step.
4. Add the Pimientos del Piquillo. Sauté them gently, lightly crushing them against the bottom of the saucepan with a wooden spoon. The goal is to concentrate their aroma: they should become glossy, darker, and just begin to catch slightly without burning.
5. Pour in the dry white wine and scrape the bottom of the saucepan. Reduce over medium heat until the smell of alcohol disappears and the liquid is almost absorbed by the peppers and onion.
6. Add the Spanish fried tomato sauce and mix thoroughly. Simmer gently until the sauce loses its raw acidity, the oil rises slightly to the surface, and the color becomes a deep orange-red.
7. Add the lightly salted vegetable broth and some of the reserved Pimiento juice if it smells pleasant. Partially cover and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are completely tender and the sauce thickens. The simmer should be steady, never violent.
8. Blend for a long time off the heat, using an immersion blender or countertop blender, until very smooth. For a restaurant-style sauce, pass it through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing with a ladle: it should coat the spoon with no visible pieces.
9. Return the sauce to the clean saucepan. Add the heavy cream and heat gently without boiling. The sauce should become satiny, supple, and glossy, with a dominant piquillo flavor and a sweet finish.
10. Adjust the salt and ground black pepper. If the sauce seems too thick, loosen it with a little hot broth; if it seems too thin, reduce it over low heat, stirring often, until it clearly coats the spoon.
11. Serve hot, generously spooned around grilled fish, salt cod, croquettes, eggs, white meats, or roasted vegetables, as is traditional in Spain with piquillo sauces.

Nutrition

Per serving

Energy

204.2 kcal

Protein

1.92 g

Carbohydrate

7.96 g

Fat

17.85 g

Fibre

2.29 g

Calcium

6.44 mg

Iron

0.19 mg

Magnesium

5.72 mg