Romesco: A Spanish Dip

Given the amount of parties and get-together's we have at home, there is always a need to have quick snacks ready. And we know, that an interesting dip can make any regular snack a "hit" so we keep trying new and exotic dips. One way to create a dip is to make recipes, which are traditionally supposed to be for "sauces", in a slightly different way.

Recently, we came across this new sauce that originated in Spain – Romesco (found this in the latest edition of a food magazine which we read very often). The ingredients seemed familiar, and the process a bit similar to our "Red bell pepper pasta sauce" meaning we were set to try this new recipe. Here goes our experiment with truth (or something like that!)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Olive Oil

10 Toasted Almonds

10 Toasted Hazelnuts (optional, can use almonds or pinenuts instead)

1 1-inch thick slice of crusty bread, torn into pieces

5-6 garlic Cloves, chopped

1 teaspoon Salt

1 Tbsp Smoked paprika 

1 Oven Roasted Red Bell Pepper

3 Oven Roasted Tomatoes

1 tea spoon White Wine Vinegar (normal vinegar would work too)

Black Pepper to taste

  

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add garlic, torn bread pieces, almonds and hazelnuts. Toast well until all ingredients start turning brown and nuts start loosing their skins.

2. In an oven, roast the red bell peppers and tomatoes till their skin starts to peel off (about 10 - 15 minutes). Take out from the oven, and peel their skins. Cut them in quarters and take out the seeds

3. In a Food Processor, add ingredients from Pan (toasted almonds, hazelnuts, bread pieces, etc.), and peeled and de-seeded roasted Bell Pepper and Roasted Tomatoes. Add salt and black pepper as per taste

4. Churn to create a semi-thick dip ready to be served. The nuts and bread add depth to the sweet and tangy flavors of the bell peppers and tomatoes. The colour is fiery orange and the taste superb!

5. In case you wish to store it in a container, you may bake the dip in oven for 10 mins and then store it. To bake, spread out the dip in baking dish to ensure even baking. Kept in a sealed container, the Romesco sauce, will last for a week or more in the fridge. It freezes well, too

Voila! A unique dip is thus created. Have it with anything like fish fingers, french fries, or toasted garlic breadsticks.