Katie Button’s Romesco Recipe

From Cúrate: Authentic Spanish Food from an American Kitchen

There’s no one version of this iconic Spanish sauce, just essential components. It’s sweet with tomatoes, onion, and garlic, juicy with nuts and olive oil, thick with bread, tangy with vinegar, and smoky with pimenton.

Proportions vary from cook to cook, and this is the mix I’ve landed on for its balance of sweet, sour, and smoky. It’s great over any meat or vegetable, grilled in the summer or roasted in the winter.

makes about 2 1/2 cups

One 6-inch piece baguette, crusts trimmed into 1/2-inch cubes (1 cup)
1 tablespoon, puls 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1/3 cup skin-on raw almonds
1/3 cup skin-on raw hazelnuts
1 1/4 pounds tomatoes (about 2 medium)
1 1/2 teaspoons blended oil
1 small yellow onion, peeled and halved
2 heads garlic
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pimenton (smoked sweet paprika)
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400F. If your bread isn’t stale and dry, toast cubes on a half-sheet pan in the oven. You don’t want any color, but you do want it to dry out. Place the bread cubes in a small bowl. Drizzle with the vinegar.

Spread the almonds and hazlenuts in a single layer on a half-sheet pan and bake until dark golden brown, about 12 minutes. Raise the oven temperature to 425F.

Meanwhile, line another half-sheet pan with foil. Core tomatoes, then mark an “X” on the other ends with the tip of a sharp knife. Rub 1 teaspoon oil all over the prepared pan. Put the onion halves cut side down on another sheet of foil and wrap well. Put on the prepared pan, next to the tomatoes. Cut off the tops of the garlic heads to expose the cloves; discard the tops. Drizzle the remaining 1/2 teaspoon oil on the cut side. Place the garlic cut side down on a sheet of foil and wrap tightly. Place next to the onion.

Roast until the tomatoes are a darker shade of brown and their skins are wrinkly and peeled back from the cuts, about 35 minutes. Transfer them to a bowl. Return the pan to the oven. Continue roasting until the onion and garlic are tender and caramelized and the on the bottoms, about 15 minutes more. Let stand to cool.

When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them and discard the peel. Hold one over a bowl and gently squeeze out any excess liquid. Reserve the tomato guices in the bowl and transfer the flesh to a food processor. Repeat with the remaining tomatoes. Squeeze the garlic out of their skins into the food processor. Add the onion, almonds hazelnuts, soaked bread, olive oil, and smoked pimenton. Pulse until well combined, but still a little chunky. If the mixture is too thick, pulse in a little of the reserved tomato juice.

Transfer to a bowl an dseason with 1 teaspoon salt. Taste and add more salt if you’d like. The romesco can be refridgerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week, Bring to room temperature before serving.

Serve with grilled vegetables or sausages.