Romesco Sauce A Spanish Condiment Recipes

Steps:

• Turn on a gas stove and roast bell peppers over the open flame until soft and blackened, about 5 minutes per side. Peppers should emit steam when pressed. Transfer peppers to a bowl, cover, and let cool to room temperature.
• Combine oil and garlic in a skillet. Turn heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until garlic just starts to turn golden brown, about 3 minutes. Move garlic to a ramekin using a slotted spoon, leaving all the oil in the skillet.
• Toast bread in the oil until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Peel peppers under running water. Cut peppers open and remove the seeds. Chop into cubes and transfer to a food processor. Add garlic, bread cubes with oil, almonds, vinegar, paprika, cayenne, and salt. Pulse on and off until sauce is well combined and reaches your desired texture.
• Transfer sauce to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to intensify the flavors, 8 hours to overnight.

Steps:

• Preheat the broiler and cover a baking sheet with foil. Place the tomatoes on the baking sheet, and place under the broiler at the highest setting. Broil for two to four minutes, until charred on one side. Turn over and broil on the other side for two to four minutes until charred. Remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and allow to cool. Peel and core.
• Turn on a food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop in the garlic cloves. When the garlic is chopped and adheres to the sides of the bowl, stop the machine and scrape down the sides. Add the toasted almonds (or almonds and hazelnuts), bread and chile powder or flakes to the bowl and process to a paste.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the pepper, tomatoes, parsley, paprika, salt and pepper. Process until smooth, and with the machine running, add the vinegar and olive oil in a slow stream, beginning with the smaller amount of olive oil and thinning out as desired. Process until well amalgamated, then scrape into a bowl.
• Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt or chile as desired. If possible, allow the sauce to stand for an hour at room temperature before using. Serve with fish and/or grilled vegetables, or on crostini.

Steps:

• If using hazelnuts, toast in oven at 350 for a few minutes until fragrant. Wrap in a clean dish towel and while still warm, rub together in the towel to remove the darker husks. (I have known a few people allergic to hazelnuts, so I usually omit them.).
• Cut away the stem and remove seeds from dried chipotle pepper, then rehydrate in boiling water. After is has softened, usually about 10 minutes, remove from the water and drain.
• Using chopping blade in food processor bowl, mince the chipotle. Add peeled garlic clove and continue mincing. Next add the roasted red bell pepper and continue chopping. Add in the Smokehouse Almonds and continue with processing. I like to get these ingredients as homogenized as possible, in order to finely mince the chipotle and garlic.
• Continue to process in the olive oil and the sherry vinegar. Then adjust seasoning with black pepper and Spanish smoked paprika.
• To keep it just slightly chunky stirr in the canned tomatoes last. But sometimes they get processed along with the rest.
• Wonderful on halibut, great as a dip for veggies or bread. Usually when I prepare My Very Favorite Chicken Terrine (see here in Food.com), I will include a small bowl of Romesco Sauce on the platter along with the mustards, cornichon, and olives, because it adds a pretty color to the presentation.