Romesco Sauce

Here in Cartagena I have seen the tapas Calamar a Romesco offered at several cafés. Calamar is squid and Romesco is a wonderful mild chili sauce that uses nuts and bread as the thickening agent. Without a food processor it is a bit of a pain to make. It requires much pounding and grinding with a mortar and pestle to make the base paste. However, it is worth it.

I can finish this sauce with fish stock and use it on sautéed seafood (post coming). I've also finished the sauce with veal stock and added onion and additional tomato for a chili rellenos sauce (future post coming). I may try finishing the sauce with a roasted chicken stock and use it to bake chicken with green chilies topped with Manchego cheese—that sounds good. The imagination goes on and on for what can be done with this yummy goodness from Catalonia.

This sauce freezes well. Prior to long passages I will make a batch and freeze it for use on fish we catch along the way.

Ingredients:

• 6 dried Choricero Chilies (soaked in hot water and flesh scrapped out)
  
• ¼ cup/60 ml Olive Oil
• 3 ½ ounces/100 g Bread (I've been using baguette)
• 3 Cloves Garlic, whole and peeled
• 15 Blanched Almonds
• 5 Blanched Hazel Nuts
• 1 ½ tsp/5 g Salt
• 1 Yellow Onion, chopped
• 1 Tomato, peeled & chopped
• ½ cup/120 ml Dry White Wine
• 1 tbsp/10 ml Red Wine Vinegar
• ½ tsp/2 g Red Pepper Flakes
• 2 cups Water (or stock of choice for intended use fish, chicken, etc.)

Chilies soaking in hot water

Mise en place

1st row—Red wine vinegar, olive oil, almonds & hazel nuts, and salt
2nd row—Dry white wine, garlic, and red pepper flakes
3rd row—Onion and processed chilies
4th row—Bread and tomato

Put It Together:
Remember I'm doing this on a sailboat without a blender or food processor.

1. Place the dried chillies in a sauce pan and add boiling water to cover. Put on a lid and let soak for 30 minutes.
2. Drain the chilies and cut them open. Discard the stems and seeds.
3. Scrape out the flesh with a knife and set aside.
4. Assemble your mise en place (see photo above).
5. In a frying pan heat half of the olive oil and fry the bread until golden (3 minutes per side). I cut the bread into cubes to make the mortar & pestle pounding stage a little easier.
6. In a mortar combine the fried bread, garlic, almonds, hazelnuts, and salt.
7. Pound until you have a paste (I have a small mortar and did this in batches).
8. Add the chili flesh and pound until fully incorporated (the resulting paste should be slightly coarse).
9. Heat the frying pan over medium-high heat and add the remaining olive oil.
10. Add the onion and sauté until lightly golden (3 to 4 minutes).
11. Add the tomato and salt.
12. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes.
13. Add the chili paste, wine, vinegar, red pepper flakes and water* or stock of choice. Give a good stir to combine.
14. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes.
15. Remove from heat and pass the sauce through a food mill with a medium plate.
16. Then pass through the food mill again with a fine plate.
17. The sauce is ready to use hot or cold.

*Note: I used water and reduced the sauce down by a quarter. This is enough sauce for three, two-serving dishes. I refrigerate or freeze the sauce divided in thirds. When I use the sauce I add 1 cup/250 ml (or more) of the appropriate stock and reduce to the desired thickness.

Pounded paste in mortar

2nd pass through the food mill and done

Review
Shirlee - Liked It
John - Liked It – I'm thinking “New Mother Sauce”
Do Again - Yes
Leftovers - None

What I'll Do Next Time
For now I'm going to keep the sauce as is and prepare it for use with different stocks according to the protein it is accompanying.