Romesco Sauce
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."
INGREDIENTS
Nutrition- 2
- 6
- 3
- 1 -2large bay leaf
- extra-virgin Spanish olive oil
- 1⁄2
- 1⁄4teaspoon spanish smoked paprika
- 1pinch cayenne
- 1⁄4
- 1⁄4teaspoon dried chipotle powder
- 1small cinnamon stick
- 1⁄4teaspoon ground ginger
- 1⁄4teaspoon ground cumin
- 1⁄16teaspoon ground cloves
- 1⁄2cup toasted hazelnuts and 1/2 cup almonds (I used half Oregon grown hazelnuts and half almonds)
- 1⁄3cup red wine vinegar (I tested with sherry vinegar) or 1/3 cup sherry wine vinegar (I tested with sherry vinegar)
- 1⁄2cup extra-virgin olive oil
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DIRECTIONS
- *Large tomatoes were quartered, medium sized halved and cherry tomatoes left whole for roasting.
- 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.).
- 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.
- Roast about half an hour or until peppers are evenly blackened and tomatoes have shriveled to a deep russet red.
- Depending on the size of the tomatoes and peppers, they may cook at different rates. Remove the peppers as they blacken.
- (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.
- 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.
- With the motor running, gradually add the vinegar, then the olive oil until it is pureed. Season with salt and pepper.
- 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.
- If the Romesco lasts longer than that, you didn’t really like it.
- Tastes best warm or at room temperature.
- 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.
- Yield is estimated.
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