Romesco Sauce – 45 million Spaniards can’t be wrong. There is a reason this capsicum sauce is the national sauce of Spain. Because it’s magic! Use it as a dip, marinade, spread, pesto, sauce, with vegetables, proteins, seafood, even eggs….the list is almost endless. The ultimate standby – and a terrific unique way to use capsicum (bell peppers) for something that’s incredibly delicious!
You can find bottled sauces in stores that claim to be a “magic sauce”. But I am so confident that Spanish Romesco Sauce is THE ultimate magic sauce that I’m willing to put a bet on it.
If someone can show me a sauce / dip that is tastier and more versatile, then….hmm….what’s a good punishment for me?
I know! I’ll be VEGAN for a month. No meat, no eggs, no dairy and….shudder at the thought…no cheese. Oooohh…that’s a BIG BET!!! 🙂
The reason I have so much confidence in Romesco Sauce is because Spaniards have been devouring it for centuries and once the Western world started discovering it in the 21st century, chefs all around the world jumped on it. Because the pros knew they had stumbled on something really special. 😉
It’s smoky from the chargrilled capsicum/bell peppers. It’s creamy and tastes rich, it’s like a dip – but a softer consistency. And like pesto – but so much healthier (far less oil). It’s a sauce to put on food, to add into things for cooking (soups, stews, sauces), it’s a marinade, a spread.
And here’s more validation for Romesco Sauce – if you need it! Each month, Super Food Ideas magazine (Australia’s largest food magazine – woo hoo!) asks me to submit ideas for a feature. I love that brainstorming phase. The floodgates open and I send them lists of theme ideas and use an excessive amount of exclamation marks (due to overexcitement) when I describe the recipes. (Oh wait – let me add some here – !!!!)
A brief description of the magic of Romesco Sauce was all it took for Super Food Ideas to jump on it.
See? The PROS know an amazing sauce when they see it!!! 😉
Look, here’s the spread!!! It’s available now, finally! I did these recipes months ago, I’ve been waiting so impatiently for this to hit the stands!
Here’s a little run down on each of the recipes I created for Super Food Ideas using Romesco Sauce.
1. Spanish Roast Chicken with Grilled Veg (below left) – marinated in Romesco Sauce which transforms into the most amazing crust when baked!
2. Barbecued Marinated Lamb with Smashed Potatoes (below right), drizzled with Romesco Sauce – I know I should tell you how amazing the lamb is (and it really is!) but those smashed potatoes…..Courtesy of Claire from Sprinkles and Sprouts, a fellow Aussie food blogger! See her Smashed Crispy Thyme Potatoes recipe here.
3. Barbecued Seafood Skewers with Romesco Sauce (below left) – Prawns, fish and squid skewers served with Romesco Sauce on the side. This is the original purpose for which Romesco Sauce was invented by Spanish fishermen, and just one bite is all it takes to know that smoky creamy Romesco sauce and fresh seafood is a match made in heaven. 🙂
4. Summer Pasta Salad (below middle) – Romesco Sauce is brilliant to use as a pesto!
5. Romesco Eggs with Chorizo (below right)- Breakfast, lunch or dinner, just make sure you serve this with plenty of crusty bread to mop up the incredible tomato-Romesco sauce!
Though traditionally made with bell peppers / capsicum that is cooked until black on the BBQ, directly over the flame of gas stoves, or in a cranked up oven, it can also be made with store-bought chargrilled capsicum. Still delicious – but the wonderful smoky flavour is even more intense if you make your own chargrilled capsicum!
Romesco Sauce. I am unnaturally obsessed with this. I really hope you give it a go! – Nagi x
PS Isn’t the colour sensational? Makes me smile just looking at it!
PPS I hate to play favorites…..but my gosh, this Spanish Romesco Marinated Chicken is incredible. Incredible! (If I do say so myself!). The Romesco Sauce crust that forms when the chicken is roasted is so good!!! The recipe is in this months’ Super Food Ideas – along with all the other ones pictured above! 🙂
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Magic Spanish Romesco Sauce / Dip
Ingredients
- 2 red capsicum / bell peppers (Note 1)
- 1 tomato
- 5 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 slices white sandwich bread , crusts removed (Note 2)
- 1/2 cup natural almonds (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or red or white wine vinegar)
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat barbecue grill OR gas stove on high and chargrill capsicum using until black and blistered all over. (Note 4)
- Place in a bowl and cover for at least 20 minutes. The capsicum will cool down and sweat, allowing the skin to slide off easily. Peel and discard the skin, and the seeds, place in blender.
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Place tomato and garlic on foil, drizzle with 2 tsp oil, and wrap.
- Place foil packet on a tray, add bread and almonds onto the tray. Bake for 5 minutes until bread is golden, remove almonds and bread. Tear bread into pieces, place in blender with almonds.
- Bake garlic and tomato for a further 25 minutes or until tomato is tender. Open foil, allow to cool until you can handle it. Peel tomato, add to blender. Squeeze garlic from skins, place in blender.
- Add remaining ingredients, whizz until smooth. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Store in the fridge for up to 1 week. Refer to Notes for ideas for how to use!
Recipe Notes:
- Dip for chips, veggie sticks, crackers and fries
- Spread - on crostini, sandwiches, burgers (oh my, so good!)
- As a pesto
- Stirred into sauces to add flavour and richness
- Stirred into soups and stews
- As a marinade or crust for roasted meats
Omg Nagi, I just made this as a dip to take to some friends house tonight for nibbles and it’s so so yummy! I used a hand full of sweet cherry tomatoes instead of one big one and I didn’t have any almonds but I had almond meal which I just dry toasted in a small frying pan which worked perfectly. Hopefully there will still be enough left to take with me as I can’t stop eating spoonfuls of it😂…it really is just so delicious and such a gorgeous colour too!!!
Thank you😍
Made this recipe last night and I loved it. All the flavors together, oh so good. To me it had a fancy feel, but maybe that is just because I’m usually just whipping up the quick normal things.
It’s fancy for me too Julia!!😂 Actually, I first came across this recipe at a “trendy” up market bistro – so there you go! It IS fancy! 😜 N x
Hi Nagi making this now to spread on a roast cook. Do you think it would freeze ok? Cheers Melinda
This is Sauce probably has derived from the Arabic Muhamarra dip. So, i challenge you to try the original and tell us which is best.
Here comes your month of being a Vegan……… 😜
Oooh. What a great tidbit of info, let me go Google that!
Does this sauce freeze well? I’m not sure I can eat it all in a week.
Yes, it’s a great sauce. We love it at home. Just a small remark, romesco is from Catalonia, not known in most of the Spanish country. Romesco is used as a salad sauce with endives, too.
I am literally obsessed with Romesco. I made a huge batch when I went away with friends and we were using it for so many things the whole time!!
I just made the romesco sauce using the exact ingredients listed, including red peppers, fresh tomato, as well as the smoked paprika. It’s a bit grainy (is that normal)?
Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but right out of the blender and still warm, it’s not ‘tripping my trigger’– not bad, but not really great either … at least to my palate. Hopefully, it will mellow a little with a few hours in the fridge.
The grainy texture is normal. And it is served cold.
🙂 Though personally I must say I prefer it at room temperature. It just seems creamier!!
Hi Mike! There is a bit of graniness from the almonds and yes it definitely softens with time. The flavour is meant to be smokey and creamy – I’m sorry you don’t love it!! I am rather obsessed with it!
Congrats Nagi! The magazine spread is awesome! I would love to try this recipe in my pasta salad for something different. Yum!
Thanks so much Chelsey!!! <3 N x
i would love to get the recipe for the chicken and romesco sauce! I’m in Canada and we don’t get that mag here! 🙁
I’m trying your nando Portuguese chicken burgers this week, then I printed the Brazilian fish stew to try next week and I would love to put this on one of my upcoming weekly menus! 🙂 your recipes are too delicious!
thanks! erin
Hi Erin!!! I’m going to ask the magazine if I can share that Chicken, it really was so incredible!!! As for Nando’s…..OOOOHH!!!! A long time personal favourite 🙂 My friends must be so sick of me making it but I don’t care!!!
Great! thank you so much for checking with the mag! I just know that my family would love it! 🙂 I’ll post a comment on the Nando chicken once we try it later this week!
Well done on the spread in Food Ideas! Now on to your romesco sauce, I am pretty sure I can say with confidence, TASTY! Now I have the recipe, thank you 🙂
HA HA!! 🙂 Thanks so much Sara!!!
Hats off to you Nagi! Such clever ways with this robust sauce. Your recipes are always on point and completely delicious.
Thank you so much Di!!! 🙂
And this is the second email I’ve opened since returning from my overseas trip. And you’ve just sorted out my Australia Day BBQ menu. I want to do EVERYTHING! It will be so hard to choose between the chicken, the lamb and the seafood skewers. I MUST go out and buy the magazine tomorrow, when we are ready to go to the shops to restock our fridge post holiday.
(As an aside, we had your Risoni Bolognaise for dinner last night – freezer edition. I’d made a batch before we left so we’d have an easy meal to come home to – the kids devoured every bite, even though they were dog tired and jetlagged to the point they could barely keep their eyes opened!)
You make me BLUSH!!! Hope you had an AWESOME time in HK, am so jealous, I love HK!!! Amazing vibe, food, can’t get enough of it!!! PS Don’t get too excited, am sharing ribs I made especially for YOU soon!!! 😉
One day, very soon, when I’m working for you, I think we need to take a trip to HK together. It will be a business trip to research Chinese foods, and I’ll get my cousins to take us on a culinary tour of HK – we can call them our “consultants”. Surely, we can write off a trip like this on tax, right? :-p
I do love the food in HK, but boy oh boy was I ready to come home though – eating such good food and so much of it for 5 days has left me looking very very bloated. But I do love the food in HK. So much love.
Bring on the RIBS recipe!!! Can’t wait!
But of course. Research!!!! <3
Congratulations on the magazine spread – although I’m hardly surprised because you work like a trojan and your recipes rock. I have to say I love the idea of how you’ve used one sauce and come up with different recipes for it. There’s not a single one I don’t want to try.
Awww, shucks, thanks Nancy!! <3
This would taste awesome. I’ve eaten it before but haven’t made it so thanks so much for the recipe.
You must try it at home!! It’s truly incredible, promise!! 🙂
I love all the dishes you made to go with the romesco sauce! I just made this sauce recently as well and served it up with pork tenderloin 🙂
Thanks so much Sabrina!!! 🙂
I’ve bookmarked this recipe – sounds delicious and will definately be trying the marinated chicken, thanks! Jan x
Hope you do try it Jan!!! 🙂
Well, I’ll probably embarrass both myself and you if I say again that you’re a genius, but you know by now that that’s what I think. Very proud of you for getting in with the magazine people.
As for this romesco sauce, coincidentally I have a recipe noted down to make soon using it too! You’re right, it’s such a stunner! Didn’t’ know it was so oooold!
🙂
ooh!!! I bet you do an amazing version of Romesco Helen!!!
Congrats, Nagi! What an amazing feature! Everything looks stunning and this sauce/dip/marinade sounds delicious. I’m going to have to give this a try 🙂
Thanks so much Tara, you’re so sweet!!! Hope you do give this a try, seriously SO good. Spaniards. They know GOOD FOOD!!!
Love how this chicken looks…is this mag available in the states? Cant wait to try this sauce!
Hi Sue! Unfortunately not….but I am going to ask the magazine if I can share the chicken recipe!! 🙂
Ok, ok… you have me convinced. This IS on my to-do list this weekend! Recipe printed and on my fridge. There was just a very loud and audible growl from my stomach… did you hear it? Seriously can’t wait to try this! And as always, awesome spread in the magazines!
OMG can’t wait to hear what you think…….