Romesco Sauce

This romesco sauce recipe is a bright red, zingy Spanish condiment with loads of flavor! Serve with vegetables, fish, and more.

Here’s a tasty sauce recipe that every cook should have in their arsenal: Romesco Sauce! This bright red Spanish sauce is bursting with flavor: tangy, garlicky, savory, sweet, zingy and earthy all at once. There are so many facets to the flavor, it’s hard to comprehend it all in one bite! Serve it with grilled or roasted vegetables, fish, chicken, bread or really anything that needs a little sparkle (or even a French fry dip?). Here’s how to make our spin on this tasty Spanish classic.

What is romesco sauce?

Romesco sauce is a sauce from the Catalonia region in Spain, made from peppers, tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, and almonds. It was originally developed by fisherman to serve with fish, but it can also be eaten with grilled or roasted vegetables, chicken, bread, and other foods.

After traveling in Spain and Catalonia and falling in love with this sauce, it’s become one of our favorite Spanish recipes too make on a regular basis because it’s so simple to whip up. With its zingy, developed flavor and creamy body, romesco sauce is great for dolloping on power bowls or salmon bowls. Or, it’s great as a dip for fresh veggies on a crudite platter.

Ingredients in romesco sauce

A traditional romesco sauce is made with Spanish peppers called ñora peppers. This type of pepper is small, red and round and comes dried. The flavor is fruity and earthy, but not spicy. Because this type of pepper is hard to find in America, here we’ve substituted roasted red peppers here. It’s also important to find fire-roasted crushed tomatoes if you can: their sweet, developed flavor is perfect for this sauce. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Garlic
• Red peppers
• Fresno pepper (optional)
• Fire roasted crushed tomatoes
• Almonds
• Smoked paprika
• Sherry vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt

Tips for making the sauce

This romesco sauce is an American-spin on the classic Spanish sauce, since some of the classic ingredients are tricky to find here. We opted for broiling the peppers and garlic before blending the sauce, just like a traditional romesco. For ease, we also used canned tomatoes instead of fresh. Here are a few notes on the process:

• Broil the peppers and garlic until they start to blacken, about 5 to 8 minutes. This may take longer or shorter, depending on your broiler. Don’t want to broil? See the section below.
• Blend with the remaining ingredients, making it as chunky or smooth as you like. Start with ¾ cup almonds. If the sauce needs to be thicker, add a bit more.
• Adjust seasonings to taste. Add more salt or vinegar as necessary until the flavor sings!

Variation: use roasted red peppers

There are a few variations on this romesco sauce that we like to play with, depending on what ingredients we have on hand. Don’t want to broil the red peppers? You can use roasted red peppers instead. Simply use 2 jarred roasted red peppers that are drained.

For the garlic, you can roast it in a pan instead! Place the whole peeled cloves in a dry skillet and heat it until it is browned on all sides. This helps to mellow the flavor of the garlic so it’s not as pungent as using raw garlic.

How to serve romesco sauce

Once you’ve blended up your romesco sauce, you can get to the fun part: eating it! There are lots of tasty ways to enjoy this delicious sauce. Here are some of our favorites:

• Fish like Baked Fish, Baked Salmon, Grilled Salmon, Trout, Halibut, Tuna Steak, Tilapia or Red Snapper
• Shellfish like Sauteed Shrimp, Jumbo Shrimp, or Pan Seared Scallops
• Grilled vegetables like Best Grilled Vegetables, Grilled Broccolini, Grilled Potatoes, Grilled Broccoli or Grilled Green Beans
• Roasted vegetables like Best Roasted Vegetables, Roasted Broccolini, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic, or Epic Roasted Broccoli

More sauce recipes

Love making a great sauce? Here are a few more tasty homemade sauces to try:

• Try this tasty Arrabiata Sauce
• Make Garlic Butter Sauce, Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce, or Lemon Pepper Sauce
• Go for Honey Garlic Sauce for salmon and more
• Chop up a zingy Chimichurri Sauce
• Try creamy Horseradish Sauce

01

Arrabiata Sauce

02

Chimichurri Sauce

03

Horseradish Sauce

04

Easy Honey Garlic Sauce

This romesco sauce recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.

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