Romesco sauce, a garlicky sauce made with roasted tomatoes, olive oil, and nuts, is easy to prepare and wonderful as a sauce with grilled shrimp—as well as other foods such as grilled vegetables, meat, chicken, and salads.

See Also

Spicy Grilled Shrimp Recipe

Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Pasta

Bloody Mary Shrimp Cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 ripe medium tomato, halved crosswise and seeded
• 1 small red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons sliced almonds
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 tablespoons coarse dry bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds large shrimp,/a> shelled and deveined

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes

• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: Serves 6

Preparation

1. Preheat the broiler. Place the tomato and bell pepper in a baking dish and broil until the skins are charred. Transfer the pepper to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let steam for 5 minutes. Peel the vegetables and discard the charred skins, seeds and stem. Coarsely chop the tomato and pepper and add them to a food processor along with any accumulated juices.

 2. In a small skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.

Add the almonds and cook over medium heat, stirring, until slightly golden, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the bread crumbs and remove from the heat. Scrape the mixture into the food processor. Add the vinegar and process until the mixture is almost smooth. Scrape the sauce into a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Preheat a gas grill to medium-high or heat a lightly oiled grill pan over medium-high heat. Brush the shrimp with vegetable oil and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Grill the shrimp 5 to 6 inches above the coals for about 1 minute on each side, or until lightly charred and just cooked through. Alternatively, cook the shrimp in the grill pan over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until lightly charred and just cooked through. Serve the hot shrimp with the Romesco sauce alongside for dipping.

Recipe Notes and Tips

• Shrimp, both raw and cooked, should feel firm and smell sweet. Do not select any that have a fishy order.

• Store uncooked shrimp in the refrigerator immediately and cook as soon as possible. Cooked shrimp can be kept in the refrigerator for ups to 3 days. Both cooked and raw shrimp can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost the frozen shrimp slowly in the refrigerator.

• Deveining small shrimp isn't absolutely necessary, and can be hard to do. But you should, however, devein large shrimp, as the black intestine vein maybe gritty.