Calçots with romesco sauce
Calçots – mild Catalan green onions – roasted in the oven or over coals until blackened, wrapped in newspaper to finish steaming, then dipped in romesco, a sauce of ñora peppers, roasted tomato and garlic, almonds and hazelnuts. It's Catalonia's calçotada season, January to April, often followed by grilled meat.
- 1 h 13Time
- 39 minHands-on
- 4Portions
- 17 gprotein per portion
- 780kcal per portion
Ingredients for 4 portions
- 48Calçots (Catalan green onions), 2 bunches
- 3Ñora peppers
- 3Tomatoes, ripe
- 8 clovesGarlic, a small head, unpeeled
- 40 gAlmonds, blanched
- 30 gHazelnuts, skinned
- 1 sliceBread, slice, ideally a day old
- 150 mlOlive oil
- 1 tbspVinegar, red wine vinegar
- to tasteSalt
On the side
- 8 slicesBread
Method
- Heat the oven to 200 °C. Remove the stalks and seeds from the ñora peppers and soak them in hot water.
- Put the tomatoes and the head of garlic in a roasting tin, drizzle with a little of the oil and put them in the oven.
- Roast the tomatoes and garlic for about 30 minutes, until soft with wrinkled skins.
- Meanwhile, toast the almonds, hazelnuts and bread in a dry frying pan over a medium heat, stirring, until golden.
- Trim the calçots: cut off the roots and the toughest part of the green tops, leaving them about 25–30 cm long, and peel off the outer layer if it's dirty.
- Take out the tin and turn the oven up to its highest setting (250 °C). Lay the calçots in a single layer on two baking trays or straight on the rack.
- Roast them for 15–20 minutes, turning halfway, until blackened on the outside. On a barbecue over hot coals they take 10–15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, peel the roasted tomatoes and garlic and scrape the flesh out of the ñoras with a spoon. Blend them (or pound them in a mortar) with the nuts and bread, adding the rest of the oil and the vinegar a little at a time, until you have a thick sauce. Season with salt.
- Wrap the calçots in newspaper in bundles of 10 or 12 and leave them for 10 minutes to finish cooking in their own steam.
- Serve the calçots with the sauce in bowls and the bread alongside. To eat, hold each calçot by its leaves, pull the charred outer layer down and off, dip the white part in the sauce and eat it in one go.
