Greetings food adventurers! Today we travel to Thaylenah for a lovely lunch of Romesco Sauce atop roasted cauliflower. The Thaylen people are known for their fluffy bread. They are the only country outside of Shinovar to use yeast in their breads. What do we do with leftover bread? Turn it into crumbs and put it in sauce!

Romesco Sauce is a red pepper, tomato, and hazelnut sauce with breadcrumbs and spices. It can be made spicy with the addition of red pepper flakes or kept on the sweeter smokier side by leaving them out, so this is an easy condiment to adjust for the Vorin gender traditions of sweet or spicy foods (or your personal flavor preference). This sauce is excellent on roasted or grilled veggies, as a sandwich spread, or in a bowl for dipping bread into. It is especially great on roasted cauliflower. Pasta is not common on Roshar but at home I often put this on linguine.

NOTE: If you cannot find hazelnuts locally, you can order them directly from a farmer – my favorite is Freddy Guys Hazelnuts.

MAKE IT AHEAD: The roasted peppers and tomatoes need to cool before using them. You can do this part and the bread toasting ahead of time so everything is ready to pop into the food processor and the actual recipe becomes super fast.

Recipe adapted from the book “Oregon Hazelnut Country” by Jan Roberts-Dominguez (which I very highly recommend if you can find a copy), and inspired by the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson.

Romesco Sauce

Smoky flavorful sauce featuring red bell peppers, tomatoes, hazelnuts, and bread crumbs. Use it as a sandwich spread, topping for roasted or grilled veggies, over pasta, or as a dipping sauce for fresh bread.

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Makes 12 servings (1/4 cup each)

Special Equipment

• Food processor

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 5 Tbsp olive oil divided (plus more, listed separately)
• 1 lb Roma tomatoes cut in half and cores removed (keep seeds and juice inside)
• 1 red bell pepper OR 1 prepared roasted red bell pepper
• 2 cups unseasoned dried bread cubes (like for stuffing) OR 2 one-inch thick slices of Italian-style bread OR 1 1/2 cups panko / bread crumbs
• 1 cup roasted hazelnuts unsalted
• 3 garlic cloves chopped large
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional but highly recommended)
• ¾ tsp Spanish smoked paprika
• ½ tsp table salt
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper
• ¼ cup dry red wine or dry white wine (alternate: 1/8 cup red or white wine vinegar plus 1/8 cup water)
• ¼ cup olive oil

Instructions

 

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400 F.

Roast red pepper:

• Cut the pepper in half and remove the seeds and stem.
• Put the pepper halves on a baking sheet, skin-side-up.
• Bake for 10 minutes (while preparing the tomatoes).

Roast tomatoes:

• In a large bowl, toss tomato halves in 3 Tbsp oil.
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven.
• Put the tomato halves onto the hot baking sheet, cut-side up, with the pepper halves still on the sheet.
• Bake the tomatoes AND pepper halves for 15 minutes.
• Turn the tomatoes over (skin-side up) and continue roasting for another 7 minutes. Both the tomato skins and pepper skins should darken, crack, and pull away from the flesh. Ideally the pepper skins will begin to blacken. If unsure, bake for extra time – too roasted is better than not roasted enough.
• Remove pan from the oven and set aside until peppers and tomatoes are cool enough to handle.

Prepare bread:

• If using dried bread cubes / crumbs / panko, heat 2 Tbsp oil on medium heat in a skillet. Add the bread cubes. Fry the bread, stirring every few minutes, until most sides are golden brown. Remove from skillet and let cool. (We are basically making unflavored croutons).
• **If using whole slices of bread, put them in the toaster, a couple times if needed, until the bread is well-toasted but not burnt. Cut into medium pieces.

Put it all together:

• Remove the skins from the cooled tomatoes, keeping the juices (discard the skins). Put tomatoes and juices in the food processor.
• Remove the skins from the bell pepper (discard the skins). Add the roasted bell pepper to the food processor.
• Add the toasted bread, roasted hazelnuts, garlic, red pepper flakes, paprika / chili powder, salt, and ground black pepper to the food processor. NOT THE WINE YET.
• Process until smooth-ish (it will have a somewhat grainy appearance because of the bread and nuts).
• With the machine running, add the wine. Let the motor run for a moment then stop it and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
• Turn the motor back on and add the remaining 1/4 cup of oil in a slow, steady, very thin stream.
• If it seems too thick, drizzle in a little bit of hot water with the machine running.
• Taste and add extra salt / wine if needed to balance the flavors (since tomatoes and peppers will have different flavors).

Notes

Will store in the fridge for a week or two.

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