Roasted Walnut Romesco
goes great with chicken
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Romesco sauce originated in Barcelona in the 1700s, around 170 years before the word blender entered the chat. My way of saying, if you don’t have a gadget, you can pop on a rebozo, go by Maria, and use a mortar and pestle to make this chunky nut and tomato sauce.
A sauce that’s adaptable is a sauce we here (me here) at this wee newsletter, love. You do not need to be too rigid in using the same ingredients as I do. No coriander? Just use parsley, or chives, or basil, or all of them. If using a blender, effort is minimal (yay), and you can make it as tangy, mild, spicy as you like. It’s a really good sauce to practice your ability to balance flavour, as it’s quite forgiving. Make it with a few different nuts or alliums or herbs to find your favourite iteration. Then you’ll have a staple sauce that feels designed by and for you.
A note on equipment, you can use a mortar and pestle, I wasn’t joshing, but it would be a lot easier to blend the sauce for times sake. If you like chunky sauces though, don’t let me dissuade you!
Romesco goes well with many things, but it goes really well with this chicken. Just lay the chicken right on top of the sauce or douse it like a schnauzer would a fire hydrant.
The Recipe
Walnut Romesco
2 large truss tomatoes, cut into large chunks
2 capsicum (bell peppers) red or orange, deseeded and cut into large chunks
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/4 cup of walnuts
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 large handful of coriander or parsley
Zest and juice of 1 small lemon
Preheat oven to 200c. Toss tomatoes and capsicum with garlic, walnuts, olive oil, paprika, and salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes or until the capsicum are soft and slightly charred around the edges. Let cool to room temperature.
Using a blender or stick blender, blend tomato and capsicum mixture with butter beans, herbs, and salt & pepper. Mix in lemon zest and juice to taste.
Notes
If your blender is getting stuck, try remove half the mixture or adding a touch more oil to get things moving. It shouldn’t take much as the liquid in the tomatoes should help things blend seamlessly.
For a creamier, more dip-like consistency, add more butter beans or walnuts.
If someone is allergic to walnuts, swap them out for pinenuts, almonds, or cashews.
For a punchier sauce, add 1/2 a chopped red onion to the roasting tray before roasting.