Romesco Sauce

Total Time: 55 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 2 red bell peppers, seeded, deveined, stem removed (i used one red and one orange bell pepper)
• 6 medium tomatoes, cut in half (*i used a variety of heirloom tomatoes of various sizes and colors.)
• 3 whole garlic cloves (donムt bother to take off the peel)
• 1 -2 large bay leaf
• extra-virgin spanish olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (i replaced 1/4 teaspoon with spanish smoked paprika)
• 1/4 teaspoon spanish smoked paprika
• 1 pinch cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked salt (i used salish smoked salt from washington state)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried chipotle powder
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/16 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts and 1/2 cup almonds (i used half oregon grown hazelnuts and half almonds)
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar (i tested with sherry vinegar) or 1/3 cup sherry wine vinegar (i tested with sherry vinegar)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt, to taste
• cracked black pepper, to taste

Recipe

• 1 *large tomatoes were quartered, medium sized halved and cherry tomatoes left whole for roasting.
• 2 preheat the oven to 425 degrees. line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper. it's best to use a roasting pan with higher edges and not a cookie sheet (unless that's all you own.).
• 3 put the peppers on the baking sheet. put the tomatoes, cut-side up, on the baking sheet and tuck in garlic and a bay leaf. drizzle with olive oil.
• 4 roast about half an hour or until peppers are evenly blackened and tomatoes have shriveled to a deep russet red.
• 5 depending on the size of the tomatoes and peppers, they may cook at different rates. remove the peppers as they blacken.
• 6 (i know you're not supposed to do this, but i skipped peeling the bell peppers. the taste of the final product did not suffer in the least.)put the peppers on a plate and cover with an upturned bowl until cool enough to handle. rub off skins and seed the peppers.
• 7 discard the bay leaf. squeeze garlic out of papery husk. *remove* the cinnamon stick. process the tomatoes and bell peppers including the liquid that is left over from roasting, in a food processor, blender, or with an immersion blender along with the paprika, cayenne, smoked salt, ground chipotle powder, ginger, cumin, cloves and hazelnuts/almonds.
• 8 with the motor running, gradually add the vinegar, then the olive oil until it is pureed. season with salt and pepper.
• 9 store airtight in the refrigerator for up to a week. i often will float a bit of olive oil over the top to keep the air out.
• 10 if the romesco lasts longer than that, you didn’t really like it.
• 11 tastes best warm or at room temperature.
• 12 my serving suggestion: i baked a loaf of marianne baguette - traditional rustic french bread and spooned some of the romesco on the bread, followed by a scatter of turkish feta, minced fresh cilantro and fresh winter savory and a shake of cracked black pepper.
• 13 yield is estimated.