Shrimp in Romesco Sauce
Spanish Fish and Seafood Meat Dishes
Finally on the site, the delicious Spanish romesco sauce. Now you have another reason to prepare pepper paste. Mine has been ready since last weekend.
Romesco sauce is a sauce based on peppers, almonds, and hazelnuts. It goes very well with fish, seafood, or chicken. On Sunday I prepared it with shrimp, and today I'll use the rest of the paste for chicken. The recipe is inspired by Judy Rodgers and results in more of a paste than a sauce. However, dissolved with fish or chicken broth, it takes on the right sauce consistency. You'll see!
Ingredients
500g shrimp (or 250g peeled shrimp)
1/2 onion (about 30g)
1/4 bunch parsley
2 tablespoons oil
Romesco Sauce
1 dried ancho pepper
1 slice stale bread (about 50g)
25g hazelnuts (roasted, without skin)
15g almonds (without skin)
1 tomato (about 200-250g)
1 tablespoon pepper paste
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes (or hot paprika)
2 large cloves garlic
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (6%; or sherry vinegar)
50ml olive oil
4 tablespoons oil
salt
Servings: 2 (or 4 as a warm appetizer)
How to prepare shrimp in romesco sauce
- Heat a grill pan on maximum heat for 5 minutes. Turn the heat to medium then place the ancho pepper in it. Toast about 1 minute per side. Place in a bowl and cover with hot water.
- Drizzle the bread slice generously with oil on each side (about 2 tablespoons per side). Place in the grill pan and toast until nicely browned, being careful not to blacken it. Transfer to a food processor. Add the hazelnuts, almonds, and crushed garlic on top.
- Place the tomato sliced into rounds in the grill pan. Toast about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a bowl.
- Remove the stems and seeds from the soaked pepper from step 1 and add it to the processor.
- Blend the contents of the processor until everything is well chopped and looks like a moist brown paste.
- Peel the cooled tomatoes and add them, without the released juice, to the processor. Add the pepper paste and chili. Blend at higher speed until everything is well chopped. Then pour the olive oil and vinegar in a thin stream while the processor is running. After adding all the liquids, increase the speed and blend for another 30 seconds to get a smooth paste. Taste and adjust salt.
- Transfer the romesco sauce to a container/jar. You'll get about 250g of romesco sauce. It keeps in the refrigerator for 1 week.
- Clean the shrimp. Rinse all the "shells" from the shrimp in cold water several times. Place them in a pot with just enough water to cover them. Add salt. Simmer covered for at least 30 minutes, maximum 1 hour.
- Strain the broth and measure 120ml. The rest of the broth can be frozen as is or reduced.
- Put 100g romesco sauce in a bowl. Add the hot broth over it and mix well to dissolve the paste. Let it sit until needed.
- Heat the olive oil in a wide pan/pot. Add the finely chopped onion and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add the shrimp (in batches if necessary, so you don't crowd them) and fry just until they turn pink on each side (about 1-2 minutes). Remove the shrimp from the pan.
- Add the romesco sauce from step 10 over the onion. Simmer for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp back to the pan and simmer for another 2 minutes.
- Add the chopped parsley.
- Serve with fresh bread and sauteed spinach.
Ancho pepper soaking
Toasting the bread
Grilling the tomatoes
Tomatoes cooling down
Bread, ancho, garlic, hazelnuts and almonds blended
Romesco sauce
Romesco sauce dissolved in shrimp broth
Frying the shrimp and onion
Add the romesco sauce and simmer
