Romesco

the brick-red pounded sauce of Catalonia: toasted hazelnuts and almonds, dried ñora peppers, roasted tomato and garlic ground with oil and vinegar, the sauce of the calçotada

Origin: Spain

From the journey of Hazelnut.

Romesco is the great sauce of Catalonia, and above all of the country around Tarragona and Reus, where the hazelnut has been grown as a serious crop for centuries. It belongs to the deep Catalan tradition of the picada, the pounded paste of nuts, bread, and garlic that thickens and perfumes a dish, and it is built on the region's own hazelnuts and almonds, toasted and crushed with the sweet, mild dried ñora pepper that gives the sauce its warm brick-red colour, together with roasted tomato and garlic, fried bread, olive oil, and a sharp note of vinegar. The nuts are not a garnish but the very body of the sauce, ground to a coarse, rich paste that clings and satisfies. Romesco is the indispensable partner to the calçotada, the boisterous late-winter feast at which whole charred calçots, a kind of sweet spring onion, are peeled and dragged through a communal bowl of the sauce and eaten with the fingers; but it is equally the sauce for grilled fish, for rabbit and chicken, and for roasted vegetables, and no sauce better shows the hazelnut in its savoury Catalan character.

Ingredients

  • 4 whole dried ñora peppers (or 2 tbsp sweet smoked paprika)
  • 75 g hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
  • 75 g blanched almonds, toasted
  • 2 whole ripe tomatoes
  • 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
  • 1 slice rustic bread, crusts removed
  • 120 ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
  • 1 pinch cayenne or dried chilli, to taste
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste

Method

  1. Soak the dried ñora peppers in hot water for 20 minutes until soft, then split, deseed, and scrape the soft flesh from the skins with a knife; discard the skins. (If using paprika instead, skip this step.)
  2. Meanwhile, roast the tomatoes and the unpeeled garlic cloves in a hot oven, or over a flame, until the tomato skins blister and the garlic is soft, about 15 minutes. Peel both. Fry the slice of bread in a little of the olive oil until golden, then drain.
  3. In a mortar, or a food processor, pound or pulse the toasted hazelnuts and almonds with the fried bread and a little salt to a coarse paste.
  4. Add the ñora flesh, roasted tomato, garlic, paprika, and cayenne and pound or pulse to combine. Then work in the olive oil little by little, followed by the vinegar, until you have a thick, coarse, brick-red sauce. Season with salt and more vinegar to taste.
  5. Let the romesco rest for at least half an hour before serving to let the flavours marry. Serve at room temperature with charred spring onions or calçots, grilled fish, chicken, rabbit, or roasted vegetables.

Notes

Proportions vary from family to family: some make romesco nut-heavy and thick as a dip, others looser as a sauce; adjust the oil to the use. The hazelnut and almond are traditionally used together, roughly half and half, the hazelnut giving depth and the almond body; an all-hazelnut version is richer still. Romesco is the classic sauce of the calçotada, but the same sauce, thinned, becomes the dressing for the Tarragona fish stew, and stirred into a pan of sautéed vegetables it makes a meal in itself.

The Gastrographer

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