Romesco Dip
Spoke at a retired teacher’s convention today, and demoed, among other things, a high-reward-for-minimal-effort romesco dip. Twice. Plus made a few batches to sample out. As always, I ended up with too much. As food goes, it’s a good thing to have too much of.
Romesco is made from roasted red peppers, toasted almonds, garlic, olive oil and toasted bread. (Yes, toast – you tear it up and blend it in, and it adds body and bulk to the dip without adding much in the way of fat and calories. I mean yes bread has calories, but it’s better than adding a cup of sour cream or mayo.)
It’s fantastic, intensely flavoured stuff, and makes a great substitute for mayo on sandwiches (especially roast chicken, salami or roasted/grilled veg sandwiches) or dip for shrimp with their tails. Perhaps its best feature is its ability to improve with age – a little like Leonardo DiCaprio – so you can do up a batch to dip into for a week or so, or make well in advance of a party. On one of my favourite nights a bunch of us sat outside in lawn chairs until almost dawn, relighting candles as they burned down, sipping bubbly moscato and beer and scooping up great garlicky gobs of romesco with pitas, which we had grilled until char-marked and crisp, then broken into pieces. We all had garlic burps for two days.
Tonight we ate it far more unceremoniously in front of the news with leftover baguette, which having been sliced early this afternoon had gotten a little leathery, so I brushed the pieces with oil and toasted them in the oven to revive them a little and make them easier on the teeth. Also: asparagus spears straight from the fridge and thawed tail-on shrimp from the freezer.
W asked for a raisin bran muffin and Cheerios. He got them.
Romesco Dip
AuthorJulie
Toast almonds and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 3 minutes, until the almonds are pale golden and fragrant. Transfer to a food processor. Tear the bread into chunks into the food processor. Pulse until the bread and nuts turn to crumbs.
Add the red peppers, vinegar, paprika and salt and whiz until well blended. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and process until the mixture has the consistency of thick mayonnaise, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Serve with pitas, slices of crusty baguette, cooked tail-on shrimp, naan or veggies.
Makes about 1 cup.
Ingredients
Directions
Toast almonds and garlic in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 3 minutes, until the almonds are pale golden and fragrant. Transfer to a food processor. Tear the bread into chunks into the food processor. Pulse until the bread and nuts turn to crumbs.
Add the red peppers, vinegar, paprika and salt and whiz until well blended. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and process until the mixture has the consistency of thick mayonnaise, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Serve with pitas, slices of crusty baguette, cooked tail-on shrimp, naan or veggies.
Makes about 1 cup.
I LOVE romesco!!!!!!
I love making it a bit thinner, almost sauce-like and serving with fish.
Yes! Or roast chicken. Yum.
I think your Romesco dip was the second recipe I made when I first got Grazing last year…the first were the Whole Wheat Raspberry Scones – the skinnier and more fabulous fresh from the oven version of those oh-so-delish ones from Starbucks.
This looks FANTASTIC! I have to make it…I love things like this that are easy to make but add a ton of flavor.
I’ve never had Romesco- it looks really yummy! I’m looking for a dip to serve with Naan- I might try this!
I have been wanting to try a romesco sauce. It looks so good. What an amazing colour!
I can’t wait to make this!
I baked the maple walnut cookies last night (letting the dough sit for approx 30 hours). I added some candied (in maple syrup) bacon. They are great!
Your timing is a God send. My husband went to the grocer yesterday to pick up red peppers that were on sale. I thought some to dip into hummus, some to caramelize in pepperonata, and a few to stash in the freezer. I thought 4 -5 lbs. would be fine. He came home with over 13 lbs.! Guess what I’ll be trying? Thanks, Julie 🙂
Sounds great..thanks again.
I’ve never had romesco, but this looks fabulous! I’m definitely going to try it soon!
YUM (to the dip and the reference to Leo!).
OH MY GOODNESS. i had some extra roasted peppers that needed to be used up, and i made this–it is FABULOUS. i’m eating it right now as a spread on a sandwich with chicken and feta. it’s ridiculous how tasty it is.
I looove the colour of this! I made a roasted red pepper and feta dip that is out of this world, but the colour isn’t nearly as pretty! I’ll have to try this. I guess you could use orange peppers too for a stunning colour!
I didn’t know that’s how romesco dip was made. Great recipe!
I first tried making Romesco sauce from a great book called “Cooking for Mr. Latte” by Amanda Hesser, a New York food writer. Hers was far more complicated, but the end result looked just the same. She said in the book that after her first bite (on a beach in Spain)”her life improved measurably”. I agree.
Hi Julie,
Your butter chicken recipe looked so good that I bought the ingredients last night and prepped it for the crock pot to be cooked all day today while I was at work. Looks and smells great,can’t wait to try it, but I am curious about the curry paste. I bought some green curry paste to try (something different for me!), but had to decide between green and red curry paste. What is the difference?
I wanted to make this the minute I saw it on Tastespotting…& guess what…I DID!! I had day old focaccia waiting to be used, & charred red bell peppers too. It’s fantastic, & I can eat it by the spoonful! Thank you
We had it yesterday..it disappeared in a heartbeat!
I actually made this very recipe for a dinner party two Saturdays ago — and people were begging to take the leftovers home. It’s more labor intensive than the ingredient list suggests, but it’s so worth it — and I always make up a bunch of it (still ended up with very little after everyone else absconded with it. Ah well).
Made the dip, loved it to the last bit left in the bowl. Thank you for posting it…http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/2009/05/chipotle-garlic-focaccia-romesco-dip.html
Cheers
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I made this tonight, and it was amazing! I don’t think I’ll be putting mayo on my sandwiches anymore. 🙂 Thanks!
nice recipes ,tnx for sharing with us.
I never try something like this. It sounds good… 🙂
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very interesting , good job and thanks for sharing such a good blog.your article is so convincing that I never stop myself to say something about it.You’re doing a great job . Keep it up
I love this stuff. Your recipe is excellent! Thank you for sharing it.
Glad you enjoyed it!