Romesco is my summer obsession. It's a sauce made from bell peppers and nuts and olive and perfectness.
INGREDIENTS*
*I'm eyeballing. A lot of my recipes are "this is what feels right," so I'm estimating.
2 bell peppers
12 toasted almonds
12 toasted hazelnuts (you can rub their skins off once they are toasted and cooled)
For the nuts, it's basically around 1/3 to 1/2 cup, you can do all almonds or all hazelnuts. I do not recommend any other nut although maybe cashews? Which I haven't tried so if you do REPORT BACK. Nuts can be toasted in 5 minutes on the stovetop, or you can buy pretoasted.
1/2 slice country bread, about 1-inch thick (I use sourdough. A whole slice of whatever you get in a sliced bread pack will do too. I'm a bread snob so I only use the best)
4 oz tomato paste (I buy the little 6 oz cans for 90 cents and use more than half, but not the whole can)
1 clove garlic (or if you're like me, 2, and they're big)
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional, but pretty)
A couple squeezes of lemon, maybe a teaspoon or two?
salt and pepper to taste
extra-virgin olive oil (you'll see how much in the instructions)
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Roast them peppers! I do it on my stove
like this. You can do it in the oven too but I don't know how, you'll have to google it.
- Toast you nuts and your bread! Throw nuts into a pan on medium-high heat, shake 'em around a lot. When they start to smell toasty and get a little brown, they're done. Takes like 5 minutes. You can get pre-roasted nuts but I like doing it myself and it makes my kitchen smell nice. Bread you can just throw in a toaster. Then shred it with your bare hands into smaller pieces, like a boss.
- In a food processor, pulse together the toasted nuts, garlic and bread until the bread and nuts are coarsely ground.
- Add the peppers and tomato paste and process more. It will form a coarse paste and smell divine.
- Add olive oil and resuming the blending. I like my romesco thick, like humus, so I use maybe half a cup at most. Add olive oil until it reaches the consistency you like. Most recipes I see call for 1 to 1 1/2 cups.
- Stir in the parsley, season to taste with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Don’t worry, the romesco will “break” (separate into solids and oil); this is normal. Just stir it back up before you use it.
What do I put this on? Everything. Sautéed green things like asparagus or green beans. Very nice on oven roasted potato. Bread if I'm feeling lazy. Really good on poultry or fish.
ROMESCO FOR ALL! 
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