This is a
Spanish (my version Spanish-ish) dip/sauce thing, made with roasted pepper,
tomato, garlic and walnuts. You could use other nuts, but I like the slightly
bitter edge you get from the walnuts.
Romesco
sauce works incredibly well as an accompaniment to some simply grilled or
pan-fried fish, and I really love it with sweet potato wedges too, or on a bit
of nice bread, or on a spoon. Basically, it is delicious.
Rachel Khoo
made one and served it with burnt leeks, which had been steamed in newspaper.
That sounded like the kind of bonkers thing I like to do, so I gave it a go –
and I thought the leeks were horrible. If you like your sauce-accompaniments
oniony and stringy, let me know and I’ll give you the directions.
This recipe
is based on recipes by Rick Stein and Rachel Khoo. This amount makes
approximately 6 dainty servings. More if you are less dainty, like me.
Ingredients
Pinch
chilli flakes or 1 dried birds eye chilli
2
medium/large tomatoes, sliced in half
2 red
peppers, slice in half and remove the seeds and white pithy bits
3-4 cloves
of garlic, unpeeled
30g walnuts
- or hazelnuts or almonds, toasted and skins crumbled off (half-heartedly is
fine)
20g stale-ish
nice bread – no crusts
100ml olive
oil
1 ½ tbsp
red wine/sherry vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180-200 degrees (I’m
not sure exactly because my oven only has three temperatures: very hot, hot,
slightly less hot).
On a baking tray, arrange the tomatoes and
peppers cut side down. Hide the garlic cloves under the pepper shells to
prevent them becoming too scorched (this does work). Roast (no oil needed) for
15-20 minutes, until the vegetables are fragrant and the skins have blistered
and blackened in places.
Pinch off as much of the burnt pepper and
tomato skin as you can, and peel the garlic cloves. Put the roasted veggies and
garlic in a food processor with the chilli flakes, toasted walnuts and bread. Pulse
to chop, and the slowly drizzle in the olive oil as you blend until you get a
rough sauce-y consistency. Add a generous pinch of salt and grind of pepper and
the vinegar, blend, and then taste to see if it needs more seasoning or more
vinegar.
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