Romesco Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 large roasted red pepper from a jar
- 2 slices left over bread such as baguette cubed
- ½ cup blanched almonds
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 TBS sweet smoked paprika
- 2 TBS sherry vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350oF/180oC
- Place almonds, garlic and bread on a lined baking sheet
- Toast the items on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes. Bread should be toasty, garlic just starting to show color, an nuts lightly browned
- In the work bowl of a food processor, add fire roasted tomates, red pepper, toasted bread, garlic and almonds.
- Pulse the food processor 5 - 6 times to begin combining ingredients.
- Add ½ of smoked paprika and ½ of sherry vinegar
- Turn the food processor and let run until beginning to turn into a paste
- Stop and taste. You may choose to add more paprika or vinegar
- Turn on food processor and while running slowly pour in olive oil until your desired consistency is reached.
- Check again for flavor and salt, pepper, additional paprika or vinegar to taste.
Notes
You may not use all the vinegar, olive oil or paprika called for here. Or you may use more. This is really where you get to fine tune this to your specific tastes. The amounts given are only guidelines.
Freezing This Romesco Sauce freezes well. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray, and spoon your sauce into each muffin cup. Place in freezer and let freeze until solid. Once frozen, pop the Romesco Sauce "muffins" out of the tin, and place in zippy bag to freeze. To use, take a single "muffin" out of the freezer and let thaw. If necessary, whisk to recombine ingredients.
How to Blanch Almonds. If your almonds still have the skin on them, you will need to blanch them first. To blanch, fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Add your unblanched almonds and bring back to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer and leave the almonds for five minutes. When the time is up, transfer them to a colander and run cold water over them. When they are hot enough to handle, grab on and pinch it between your fingers. The almond should pop out, and the skin will be left behind. And there they are -- blanched almonds.