Romesco Sauce

photo by COOKGIRl

- 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
- *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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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
COOKGIRl
United States