Romesco is a typical Catalan sauce, specifically from the Tarragona area, which is the basic element to accompany calçots, which is also mentioned in this glossary. Although it is also used as an accompaniment in other dishes and as a condiment in some preparations. Its preparation has various recipes, although there is a certain struggle between different populations that claim its authorship.
Here is the basic recipe with its variants.
- 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes
- 1 head of garlic
- 80 gr of toasted almonds
- 2 ñoras
- A small slice of toasted or fried bread
- 250gr. Of olive oil
- 100gr of vinegar
- Half a teaspoon of sweet paprika
- 1 chilli
- Salt
Put the ñoras to soak.
Remove the ñoras from the water and remove the seeds and scrape the skin to remove the flesh from the Ñora
Preheat the oven to 200ºC and ”*escalibar” (roast) the tomatoes for 20 minutes and the garlic for 15 minutes.
*Escalibar really is roasting the vegetables on a grill over the charcoal or over fire
Once roasted, clean the tomatoes, remove the skin and seeds, and remove the garlic from the head one by one.
Peel the almonds (the almonds must be toasted, they are already sold that way), crush them with the toast and mix them with the tomatoes and garlic.
Add the ñoras, oil, vinegar and beat everything (you can use a mixing glass or a whisk).
Add the sweet paprika and a chilli tip to give it a spicy touch and beat again.
The variants are: instead of fried or toasted bread you can use carquinyolis (sweet toast with encrusted almonds), add a teaspoon of sweet paprika, leave out the chilli, or add toasted hazelnuts in addition to the almonds.
