Romesco is a mild chili sauce that uses nuts and bread for thickening. Without a food processor, it requires a lot of pounding and grinding with a mortar and pestle to make the base paste.

The recipe freezes well and makes enough sauce for three, two-serving dishes.

Chilies soaking in hot water

• 6 dried Choricero Chilies (soaked in hot water and flesh scrapped out)
• ¼ cup (60 ml) Olive Oil
• 3 ½ ounces (100 g) Bread (or 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.)

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

These instructions are from the boat without benefit of a food processor. If you have a food processor, feel free to use it.

1. Place the dried chilies 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). (When using a mortar and pestle, cut the bread into cubes to make the 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.
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 to reduce by a quarter (about 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.

Pounding paste in mortar

Second (and last) pass through the food mill