How to make
Peel the onion, halve it and place it in a greased baking tray. Add the two tomatoes, slightly split, as well as the garlic cloves.
Sprinkle with a little salt and put them in an oven preheated to 360°F (180°C) to bake and soften.
While the vegetables are baking, put the dried peppers to hydrate in warm water for about 30 minutes. Once they are ready, remove the seeds and scrape off the softened part with a sharp knife. Discard the skin.
If you don't have exactly the same dried ñora peppers, then use regular ones and add a pinch of smoked paprika to the recipe to get closer to the authentic taste.
Put the prepared vegetables in a blender, having previously peeled the tomatoes and garlic.
Add the crumbled bread, nuts, salt and a little olive oil to them.
Turn the appliance on at high speed, in order to get a smooth paste. Add the remaining olive oil in portions and beat again, until an emulsion is obtained. You can also work with a blender by pouring the fat in a thin stream.
The old, traditional way of preparing this tomato sauce is in a mortar, where vegetables, bread and nuts are crushed and olive oil is gradually poured in to obtain a smooth emulsion. This way, the stirring is quite a lot and is more laborious, so I have given the easy option with a blender.
Romesco sauce is typical of the cuisine of the Catalonia region in Spain. It is traditionally served with Calçots, which are a type of spring onion - roasted over a fire, almost charred on the outside. They are served on a tile. They are consumed by peeling the outer charred skin and dipping the stalk in Romesco sauce. It is necessarily eaten with your hands, even though it gets dirty, this is part of the tradition.
For further clarification, I will say that this type of onion is different from the typical spring onions. It is sweet, larger in size and thickness, but does not have shaped heads.
Spanish Romesco sauce is also served with any other dishes such as an addition to baked fish or seafood. It is uniquely delicious! There is also an option for preparing it without bread, with only one type of nut or with more than two types. Also, the vegetables can be fried instead of baked. For a thinner vegetable sauce, the amount of olive oil can be increased to obtain the desired consistency. You really need quality olive oil for the recipe, preferably Virgin or Extra Virgin.
