A cold, rustic, thick Catalan sauce made with roasted tomatoes, dried ñora peppers, almonds, hazelnuts, garlic, olive oil, and vinegar. Traditionally served with calçots, grilled vegetables, lean fish, and grilled meats.
Ingredients
- 500 g ripe tomatoes for roasting
- 2 pieces dried ñora peppers
- 80 g blanched almonds
- 30 g shelled hazelnuts
- 4 cloves pink or white garlic
- 40 g stale country bread
- 120 ml Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
- 30 ml red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Spanish mild smoked paprika
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 500 ml hot water
Method
- Rehydrate the dried ñoras in hot water until their skin softens and the flesh becomes tender under the tip of a knife. Open them, remove the stem and seeds, then carefully scrape the red pulp from inside the skin with the back of a small spoon. Discard the soaking water.
- Heat the oven to high heat. Place the whole tomatoes and unpeeled garlic cloves on a baking sheet. Roast until the tomato skins are blackened in spots and split, and the garlic is tender when squeezed. Let them cool slightly so you can handle them without burning yourself.
- While the tomatoes cook, toast the almonds and hazelnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir often, until they smell distinctly nutty and toasted and are golden in spots. Transfer them immediately to a plate to stop the toasting.
- Toast the country bread in the same skillet with a light drizzle of olive oil. It should become dry, golden, and crisp at the edges without burning, since it will give the sauce body.
- Peel the roasted tomatoes, keeping their juices. Peel the roasted garlic. For a livelier, more traditional romesco, keep a small amount of raw garlic if its flavor is mild; otherwise use only the roasted garlic for a rounder sauce.
- Put the toasted nuts, toasted bread, ñora pulp, garlic, paprika, and salt in a mortar, or in the bowl of a blender used in short pulses. Crush or blend until you have a coarse, sandy, orange-red paste.
- Add the roasted tomatoes with their juices and work the mixture again. The sauce should thicken and become homogeneous while retaining a visible grain from the nuts; it should not be perfectly smooth.
- Stir in the vinegar, then drizzle in the olive oil gradually while working the sauce. It should become glossy, dense, and thick enough to coat a spoon, holding on it without running like a vinaigrette.
- Taste and adjust only the balance of salt, vinegar, and oil. The romesco should be sweet, toasted, and slightly tangy, with a deep dried-pepper warmth, not hot.
- Let it rest in the refrigerator before serving so the nuts can hydrate and the sauce can bind. Take it out a little before serving: it is best cool or at cellar temperature, never ice-cold.
Nutrition
Per serving
- Energy
- 573.8 kcal
- Protein
- 10.73 g
- Carbohydrate
- 32.86 g
- Fat
- 48.83 g
- Fibre
- 12.32 g
- Calcium
- 62.72 mg
- Iron
- 1.37 mg
- Magnesium
- 72.58 mg
