Recipe: Catalan Romesco Sauce (food processor)

CATALAN ROMESCO SAUCE

"In the Catalonia region of Spain, this rustic, bold sauce is as popular as tartar sauce is in the United States. Like tartar sauce, every cook has a special version. Sweet red peppers and finely ground nuts are the basic ingredients. From there, the add-ins vary widely - bread crumbs, tomatoes, garlic, and onions. Marcie's treasured version stems from a list of ingredients handwritten in Spanish by the owner of a tiny, open-air, seaside cafe where she dined one moonlit evening in Tossa de Mar on the Costa Brava. Serve this bright and healthy sauce at room temperature with your favorite broiled, poached, or grilled seafood."

1/2 cup skin-on, salted, smoked whole almonds
1/2 cup coarsely chopped and drained roasted red peppers
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 A teaspoon sweet Spanish or Hungarian paprika
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon hot paprika or chili powder
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Use a food processor with a steel blade to finely grind the almonds, stopping to scrape down the sides of bowl as needed. Add red peppers, vinegar, and both the sweet and hot paprika. Pulse to process until quite smooth.

With the processor running, dribble in the oil through the feedtube until the sauce is smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

Serve at room temperature. May be made 1 to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Sauce keeps up to a week when refrigerated.

Yield: 1/2 cup
Source: Seafood Cooking For Dummies by Leslie Bloom and Marcie Ver Ploeg