Romesco Sauce

Submitted by COOKGIRl

"From a local source. I did some research on Catalonian cuisine to aid me with this recipe and inserted a few Pacific Northwest and Mexican ingredients, too. My many notes are in parenthesis below. Use the best quality ingredients-please. "How to use and serve: Packed in a glass jar or small bowl, Romesco makes a very nice hostess gift. You can use it as a spread for toasted bread; you can toss it with pasta; spread it in a sandwich; fill an omelet along with some goat cheese; or put a dollop on top of scrambled eggs or baked fish. Mix it in with smashed baby potatoes. Use it as a dip with vegetables. Or just eat it with a spoon.""

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 19
• Yields: 4 cups

ingredients

• 2 red bell peppers, seeded, deveined, stem removed (I used one red and one orange bell pepper)
• 6 medium tomatoes, cut in half (*I used a variety of heirloom tomatoes of various sizes and colors.)
• 3 whole garlic cloves (donà t bother to take off the peel)
• 1 -2 large bay leaf
• extra-virgin Spanish olive oil
• 1⁄2 teaspoon paprika (I replaced 1/4 teaspoon with Spanish smoked paprika)
• 1⁄4 teaspoon spanish smoked paprika
• 1 pinch cayenne
• 1⁄4 teaspoon smoked salt (I used Salish smoked salt from Washington State)
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dried chipotle powder
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1⁄16 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1⁄2 cup toasted hazelnuts and 1/2 cup almonds (I used half Oregon grown hazelnuts and half almonds)
• 1⁄3 cup red wine vinegar (I tested with sherry vinegar) or 1/3 cup sherry wine vinegar (I tested with sherry vinegar)
• 1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt, to taste
• cracked black pepper, to taste

directions

1. *Large tomatoes were quartered, medium sized halved and cherry tomatoes left whole for roasting.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. It's best to use a roasting pan with higher edges and not a cookie sheet (unless that's all you own.).
3. Put the peppers on the baking sheet. Put the tomatoes, cut-side up, on the baking sheet and tuck in garlic and a bay leaf. Drizzle with olive oil.
4. Roast about half an hour or until peppers are evenly blackened and tomatoes have shriveled to a deep russet red.
5. Depending on the size of the tomatoes and peppers, they may cook at different rates. Remove the peppers as they blacken.
6. (I know you're not supposed to do this, but I skipped peeling the bell peppers. The taste of the final product did not suffer in the least.)Put the peppers on a plate and cover with an upturned bowl until cool enough to handle. Rub off skins and seed the peppers.
7. Discard the bay leaf. Squeeze garlic out of papery husk. *REMOVE* the cinnamon stick. Process the tomatoes and bell peppers including the liquid that is left over from roasting, in a food processor, blender, or with an immersion blender along with the paprika, cayenne, smoked salt, ground chipotle powder, ginger, cumin, cloves and hazelnuts/almonds.
8. With the motor running, gradually add the vinegar, then the olive oil until it is pureed. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Store airtight in the refrigerator for up to a week. I often will float a bit of olive oil over the top to keep the air out.
10. If the Romesco lasts longer than that, you didn’t really like it.
11. Tastes best warm or at room temperature.
12. My serving suggestion: I baked a loaf of Recipe #235909 and spooned some of the romesco on the bread, followed by a scatter of Turkish feta, minced fresh cilantro and fresh winter savory and a shake of cracked black pepper.
13. Yield is estimated.