Romesco — Catalan roasted pepper, tomato and almond sauce

Preheat the oven to 220°C with conventional top and bottom heat. Line a large baking sheet with parchment suitable for this temperature. Halve the peppers, remove stems, seeds and white membranes, and place the halves skin-side up. Quarter the tomatoes, remove tough cores and weigh out 300 g; arrange beside the peppers, skin-side down. Seal the peeled 12 g garlic in a small aluminum foil packet and place on the sheet. Do not add olive oil or water for roasting; all the weighed oil will go into the sauce.

Roast the vegetables on the middle oven rack. Remove the garlic after about 20–25 minutes, when soft after carefully opening the packet. Roast the tomatoes for about 25–35 minutes, until softened and lightly browned at the edges; transfer to a bowl with all their juice, without peeling or removing seeds. Leave the peppers for about 35–45 minutes, until their skins are deeply wrinkled and blackened in places and their flesh is soft. If needed, roast them for another 5–10 minutes; do not add the blackened skins to the sauce.

Transfer the hot peppers to a bowl and cover for 15 minutes. Once they can be touched, pull off the skins with your fingers; do not rinse and do not squeeze the flesh. Weigh 300 g peeled roasted pepper together with its clean juice. Keep any excess for another dish; skins, seeds and stems stay outside the sauce. Spread the weighed peppers, all the roasted tomatoes with their juice and all the garlic in shallow dishes and cool for about 20–30 minutes, until no longer warm.

While the vegetables cool, put the 80 g almonds in a dry frying pan. Toast over medium-low heat for about 5–7 minutes, stirring often, until lightly golden and fragrant; immediately tip onto a plate. Toast the 30 g bread in the same dry pan for about 2–3 minutes on each side, until its surface is golden and dry. Cool the almonds and bread for about 10–15 minutes, then break up the slice. Keep all the crumbs; do not add fat and do not scorch the ingredients.

In a food processor, grind the cooled almonds with all the bread and crumbs into fine crumbs. Add the 300 g prepared peppers, all the tomatoes with their juice, all the roasted garlic, 20 g vinegar, 2 g smoked paprika and 3 g salt. Process in short bursts, scraping down the sides. Gradually pour in all 60 g olive oil and briefly process again. The sauce should hold together, be thick and slightly grainy, without large almond pieces. Do not press through a sieve and do not add water.

Scrape all the sauce from the food processor into a clean lidded container. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors combine. Stir before serving and set aside the amount needed for about 15 minutes so it is not ice-cold. This makes about 750 g, or ten servings of sauce or accompaniment, without a separate garnish or extra olive oil. Keep the rest tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and serve with a clean spoon; this recipe is not intended for storing jars at room temperature.