Today we’re going to make the classic Catalan sauce that once you taste it you’ll never look back. It’s versatile, incredible tasty and is a celebration of the Mediterranean
Romesco sauce encompasses everything from Patience Gray to Ferran Adrià – from rusticity to eloquence ,from rural life to the cutting edge of cuisine – this sauce has it all.
My first encounter with this sauce was from Patience Gray’s iconic 1986 book ‘Honey from a Weed’. In the book Patience says that is essentially known as the Catalan fisherman’s sauce in which fish or meat is normally cooked. Its base is roasted red pepper, nuts – usually almonds or hazelnuts – and tomatoes. Other ingredients are added, but in Patience Grey’s words:
The variations of this sauce are legion, secrecy surrounds the method and there is no common agreement among the fisherman or cooks about its creation.
What I have discovered though is the sauce’s versatility – I often serve it with roasted Spanish marinated pork neck – but it is also equally adept at being served with water crackers and a good aged Manchego. Nikki Sengit summed it up beautifully in her book ‘Lateral Cooking’:
A good romesco achieves a perfect poise between sweetness, sharpness and a deep nut-buttery savouriness that elevates roast meat, fish or vegetables to truly awe-inspiring heights of deliciousness.
What I bring to you today is the version that I make at home – I don’t have a woodfire, as Patience did in her time in Catalonia, so the peppers, garlic and tomatoes are oven roasted – roasting still imparts wonderful flavour though. And the garlic should just ooze out of those skins; it does add a terrific depth to the sauce. The sauce is pepped up with some red wine vinegar (I use raspberry red wine vinegar – sherry vinegar is more commonly used, however), chilli powder for that original Catalan heat and some smoked paprika to bring it closer to that woodfire taste. And with that said, let’s get cooking.
