Romesco Sauce

because old-hat hummus has worn out its welcome

Serves 3-4 as a sauce for meat or 6-9 as an appetizer with flatbreads, crackers, veggies, and such

Ingredients:
1 ounce dried, seeded guajillo pepper (about 1 inch of 1 pepper) or 2 chiles de arbol
4 Roma tomatoes
1/4 cup best-quality olive oil, divided
1/2 cup roasted and salted Marcona almonds
3 water crackers or 1/2 slice of toasted country white bread with crust cut off
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sweet paprika (preferably Spanish)
1 teaspoon of champagne or red wine vinegar (a mix of both is best)

Directions:
1. Set the oven to broil. Cover the peppers with boiling water and allow to soften for 30 minutes and reserve.

2. While the peppers are softening, halve the tomatoes lengthwise and place them, skin side up, on a foil-lined baking sheet. Brush 1 tablespoon of oil over the tomatoes and broil the tomatoes until the skins begin to darken and crack, about 5 minutes. Cool on their tray and set aside.

4. In a food processor, coarsely chop the nuts, crackers or bread, garlic, and salt. Add the pepper, tomatoes, paprika and vinegar and process to a rough paste. Slowly pour in remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a steady stream and process until just combined. If served as a dip, you may want to drizzle extra olive oil on top and sprinkle on some extra paprika. Add a dash of cayenne pepper if you’d like more kick. Set out flatbreads, crackers, chips, or pita and watch the sauce disappear.

***The food section of The LA Times just ran a recipe for romesco sauce; I like mine better, insofar as all the ingredients are actually available at most markets, it’s less labor intensive, and it tastes divine.
****If you don’t have a brush to brush the olive oil onto the tomatoes, an even better alternative is a sturdy sprig of rosemary.

Recipe by Cristina Paul