Romesco Style Tomato Sauce

Posted by Olivia on Fri, July 23, 2010

This utterly simple and delicious Spanish-style tomato sauce is perfect spooned over pasta, potatoes, fish, chicken--even plain crusty bread. If you have an immersion blender, use it when you make this for easy puree-ing.

 Ingredients

1/4 cup Medium intensity Extra Virgin Olive Oil, such as Koroneiki

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 green jalapeno, seeded and diced

4 large tomatoes, cored and chopped (about 3 cups chopped tomatoes)

1 handful fresh basi leaves, chopped

1 tsp Ancho chili powder

1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds, plus more for garnish

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Directions

Heat the Extra Virgin Olive Oil  in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and jalapeno and cook for 30-60 seconds, just until fragrant (be careful not to burn the garlic). Reduce heat to medium-low and add the tomatoes, basil, chili powder, almonds and red wine vinegar. Cover and cook for 25-30 minutes or until tomatoes break down.

Puree until very smooth. Serve garnished with fresh basil and more toasted sliced almonds.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups tomato sauce.