Romesco sauce (salsa romesco)
1 Servings
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.00 | small | Tomato, red ripe; peeled and |
| 1.00 | small | Dried hot chili pepper (or powdered |
| 3.00 | each | Garlic cloves -- peeled |
| 24.00 | each | Hazelnuts -- toasted and shelled |
| ¾ | cup | Olive oil |
| ¼ | cup | Wine vinegar |
| 1.00 | teaspoon | Salt |
Directions
Grind nuts, pepper, tomato, and garlic in a mortar or an electric blender with salt; gradually add olive oil. When sauce thickens, blend in vinegar. This recipe makes 1 to 1½ cups of sauce.
Comments: Romesco is a specialty of the province of Tarragona, where contests are held in which over two dozen chefs may compete for the championship of Romesco making. The peppery sauce is used primarily with fish, but is good with vegetables and excellent for basting grilled mutton chops. The sauce can be made in an electric blender in less than 5 minutes and comes out very well, although chefs competing in the Romesco contest always use a mortar and pestle, which, they say, extract more oil from the nuts.