Salsa Romesco Recipe

This rich and flavorful Spanish sauce is nothing like an Italian marinara sauce. It's much more assertive and complex from roasting the tomatoes and garlic, toasting the nuts and chile, with a little added zing from the red wine vinegar. It's most often served with seafood such as scallops or grilled shrimp, but I put it on pasta. It's freaking delicious. Makes 2 1/2 cups.

Ingredients
4 tomatoes, cored
1 head of garlic, sliced in half crosswise
2 T + 1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup blanched almonds (submerge in boiling water 30 seconds, pinch off skins)
1/4 cup hazelnuts
1 dried ancho chile, cored, seeded, slit (I use dried New Mexico chile)
1 t kosher or sea salt
2-3 T red wine vinegar


Directions
Heat oven to 375 F. Put the tomatoes and half of the garlic head in a baking pan. Drizzle 1T olive oil into the cored tomato wells and on the garlic. Roast until tomatoes and garlic are well caramelized but not burnt, about 90 minutes.

Chop the remaining half head of garlic and throw into a blender.

While the tomatoes roast, heat 1T olive oil in a small saute pan over medium heat. Toast the almonds and hazelnuts until golden, 5-6 minutes. Toss in the blender. Sear chile in the same pan until smoke whisp appears, 10 seconds per side. Soak in a cup of hot tap water until soft, 15 minutes. Drain and add to blender.

After tomatoes and garlic are cool, pinch off the skins. Put the pulp in the blender, add salt, start the blender, and pour 1/3 cup oil in the hole to emulsify. Add the vinegar and pulse to incorporate.