Is anyone else swimming in tomatoes right now? I can't keep up with the crop! I picked another full bowl of them and they sat in my kitchen for a few days. I had to do something with them or else they would have gone bad. And we know I'm not letting things go bad these days. If you're swimming in tomatoes too, you MUST try this sauce.
A couple months ago my friend Angela and I went out for dinner at Toro Bravo, a great tapas bar in North Portland (www.torobravopdx.com if you must know). We ordered a couple tapas to share and a couple for our own, the perfect way to handle eating tapas with a vegetarian as far as I'm concerned. For her own tapas plate, Angela got seared scallops with romesco. Neither of us had heard of romesco, and it was absolutely DIVINE. I had to sample the sauce after Angela practically melted into her seat on the first bite. It's so rich and thick and full of nutty garlicky goodness. It tastes like there's parmesan or romano, and cream, but no! It's not nearly as naughty. Angela later found a recipe online and shared it with me, I saved it, and I finally made it tonight. That's it up there in the photo, in another Sylvia Zuber original bowl (love you Mom!) . Oh my gosh. You must try it. Just the smell of the garlic and tomatoes roasting in the oven and permeating throughout my house... I almost had to eat my arm.
I adapted this recipe: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/romesco_sauce.aspx (thanks Angela and Kris!). I just used the tomatoes from my garden (see previous post for a photo) and I used a blender instead of a food processor cuz I don't have one. I didn't know how to blanch almonds so I'll tell you - just put them in boiling water for 30 seconds and drain. Then grab those suckers by the fat end and squeeze to pop the almonds out of the skin. I couldn't get the GD skins off the hazelnuts so I just freaking left them on. It's fine.
You can put this sauce on seafood or meat, on veggies, on pasta, dip pieces of bread in it, use it as a sandwich spread.... or just eat it by the spoonful like I did tonight. ;-) Enjoy.
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