KITCHEN PRACTICE 2 — Making Romesco Sauce
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Chapter: Spanish Cookery 9 — Sauces: Alioli & Romesco

TASK
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Make a romesco sauce from roasted peppers, tomato, garlic, toasted
nuts, and bread, blended smooth, and taste it against a plain grilled
vegetable.

WHAT TO DO
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1. Roast 2-3 dried nyora peppers (or substitute dried ancho chiles or
   roasted red peppers) until soft and fragrant, then remove the
   stems and seeds.
2. Roast 2-3 whole tomatoes and a few unpeeled garlic cloves in the
   oven until soft and lightly charred, then peel the tomatoes and
   squeeze the garlic from its skin.
3. Toast a handful of almonds and/or hazelnuts in a dry pan until
   golden and fragrant.
4. Lightly fry or toast a slice of bread until golden.
5. Blend the peppers, roasted tomato and garlic, toasted nuts, and
   bread together with a generous amount of olive oil and a splash
   of sherry vinegar, until smooth (a few small flecks of nut are
   fine).
6. Season with salt to taste.
7. Grill or roast a simple vegetable — spring onions, asparagus, or
   another vegetable of your choice — and taste it plain first,
   then again with the romesco sauce.

WHAT TO EXPECT
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- The sauce should be thick, rust-red or brick-orange in colour, and
  hold its shape on a spoon without separating.
- The texture should feel genuinely different from an emulsified
  sauce — noticeably grainy from the ground nuts rather than
  perfectly smooth.
- The plain vegetable should taste noticeably transformed once
  dipped in the sauce — smokier, richer, and more complex.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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Building romesco from its real components, rather than a shortcut
version, makes clear exactly where its body comes from — ground nuts
and bread doing real, physical thickening work, not an emulsion or a
roux.