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Log inNuts, bread give romesco sauce a full body
Nuts, bread give romesco sauce a full body
by Outspoken on Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:20 am
Nuts, bread give romesco sauce a full body
This flavorful sauce delivers a subtle bite and pairs well with grilled shrimp, bread and onions.
By AMY SCATTERGOOD
Los Angeles Times
Sometimes a sauce is more than, well, just a sauce. Discovered for the first time -- on the menu of a restaurant, amid the pages of a cookbook -- it looks ordinary enough. But in one bite such a sauce transforms the dish, then the meal, then the diner.
If you think I'm overstating (food is not always alchemy; sometimes, as Michael Pollan has famously observed, it's not even food), then you've never experienced a good romesco sauce.
This classic Catalonian sauce -- thick as pesto, the color of rust, textured with nuts and a bit of fried bread -- packs an astonishing amount of flavor into small acreage. Earthy, toothsome, definitely habit-forming, romesco is rough magic in a bowl.
It's also surprising, as nut sauces can often be, because at first you can't quite place the earthy undertones and complex textures. High notes of sherry and paprika yield to the deep flavors of hazelnuts and almonds; sweet octaves of tomato and pepper follow next, then there's an aftershock of garlic, maybe another of chile.
Make a bowl of it, a very large bowl. Then scoop up the sauce with a slice of toasted bread, a shrimp from the grill, a sweet spring onion slipped from the charred filigree of its skin.
In Catalonia cooking, romesco is stirred into seafood stews, spooned over fish and served in bowls as a condiment.
Because it's a sauce built with healthful nuts instead of, say, butter, a romesco is more than just an aesthetic addition or a flavor boost to a dish. Paired with bread or onions, it can be a satisfying course unto itself. You can also ladle it into soups or over spring lamb, fish kebabs or grilled vegetables. Eat it out of the bowl with a spoon.
Recipes included: BASIC ROMESCO SAUCE, ROASTED RED PEPPER-CASCABEL ROMESCO SAUCE, ROMESCO WITH GRILLED BREAD, SPRING ONIONS AND SHRIMP
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=198378&ac=Food
Los Angeles Times photos
This flavorful sauce delivers a subtle bite and pairs well with grilled shrimp, bread and onions.
By AMY SCATTERGOOD
Los Angeles Times
Sometimes a sauce is more than, well, just a sauce. Discovered for the first time -- on the menu of a restaurant, amid the pages of a cookbook -- it looks ordinary enough. But in one bite such a sauce transforms the dish, then the meal, then the diner.
If you think I'm overstating (food is not always alchemy; sometimes, as Michael Pollan has famously observed, it's not even food), then you've never experienced a good romesco sauce.
This classic Catalonian sauce -- thick as pesto, the color of rust, textured with nuts and a bit of fried bread -- packs an astonishing amount of flavor into small acreage. Earthy, toothsome, definitely habit-forming, romesco is rough magic in a bowl.
It's also surprising, as nut sauces can often be, because at first you can't quite place the earthy undertones and complex textures. High notes of sherry and paprika yield to the deep flavors of hazelnuts and almonds; sweet octaves of tomato and pepper follow next, then there's an aftershock of garlic, maybe another of chile.
Make a bowl of it, a very large bowl. Then scoop up the sauce with a slice of toasted bread, a shrimp from the grill, a sweet spring onion slipped from the charred filigree of its skin.
In Catalonia cooking, romesco is stirred into seafood stews, spooned over fish and served in bowls as a condiment.
Because it's a sauce built with healthful nuts instead of, say, butter, a romesco is more than just an aesthetic addition or a flavor boost to a dish. Paired with bread or onions, it can be a satisfying course unto itself. You can also ladle it into soups or over spring lamb, fish kebabs or grilled vegetables. Eat it out of the bowl with a spoon.
Recipes included: BASIC ROMESCO SAUCE, ROASTED RED PEPPER-CASCABEL ROMESCO SAUCE, ROMESCO WITH GRILLED BREAD, SPRING ONIONS AND SHRIMP
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=198378&ac=Food
Los Angeles Times photos
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
