How to make
Clean and chop the onion and garlic. Set them aside.
Clean the dried pepper from the stem and seeds. Put it coarsely crushed in the blender along with the nuts and cayenne pepper.
Grind into small pieces, like fine crumbs. Set aside.
Heat 1 fl oz (30 ml) of olive oil in a saucepan and fry the chopped onion and garlic. When they start smelling nice and the onion softens, pour the tomato puree (or grinded tomatoes) and stir for about 5 minutes over medium heat. If the tomatoes are too watery, increase the heat a little so that the liquid evaporates.
Add the grinded almonds and dried peppers, as well as the vinegar, salt, black pepper and smoked paprika.
Transfer the mixture into the mixer bowl or another convenient container.
Position the mixer at the bottom as when making mayonnaise.
Slowly pour in the remaining 3.4 fl oz (100 ml) of olive oil while slowly pulling the mixer upwards. This will emulsify the sauce and make it smoother.
When you have reached the surface and the entire sauce is well blended, transfer it to two bowls to place in the center of each serving plate.
Then peel the shrimp leaving the last bit that holds the tail. This will make it easy and convenient to grab each shrimp and dip it in the sauce.
Arrange the shrimp on the plates around the bowls with Romesco sauce.
Sprinkle with chopped chives and serve them on the festive table.
Note: Romesco is a Spanish sauce from the region of Catalonia. It is generally made not with ordinary dried peppers, but with special dried peppers - ñoras, which have a slightly smoky flavor. If you can get hold of them, use 2 pcs. ñoras for this amount of products (they are small). In that case you will not need to add smoked paprika, I added it to bring the authentic flavor of the sauce closer just in case we make it with regular dried pepper.
If you love shrimp, try our recipes for shrimp Saganaki and shrimp with butter.
