Romesco Sauce

Romesco is a Catalan sauce built on the principle of cooked-down sweetness layered with smoke and crunch. The traditional base is roasted red peppers (often the dried ñora), ripe tomatoes blistered until their skins peel away, garlic charred whole in its skin, and toasted almonds and hazelnuts. All of that is pounded - or now blitzed - with stale bread, sherry vinegar, smoked paprika and good olive oil into a thick, rust-coloured paste. Texture matters: it should not be smooth like a hummus but coarse enough to read as a sauce-with-bite. Serve it with grilled fish, grilled spring onions (calçots), lamb, or pork.