The famous sauce from the glorious Roman city Tarragona, on the Mediterranean in Southern Catalonia, is a Catalan way of life -- a staple, a fixture in every Catalan home, and you, too, will fall in love with it. It is made in a mortar and pestle with an increasingly exciting mixture of, first, marcona almonds and Fairway Catalan arbequina extra-virgin olive oil, and then in turn cloves of garlic and nyora chiles (though we have substituted chipotles and anchos because we like a piquant romesco!), Spanish smoked paprika, fresh seeded and juiced tomato, lemon juice, and more of our own Fairway Catalan arbequina extra-virgin olive oil.
Romesco has a gorgeous vermilion color, a thick-ish texture, and an alluringly complex, sweet and nutty flavor. Think of it as a red pesto sauce that goes great with everything! We provide it constantly aside and atop grilled fish and shrimps and lobster, roast chicken, roasted and grilled meats, grilled and steamed vegetables -- it's like the aioli sauce that always accompanies a bouillabaisse and a classic aioli itself.
A derivation of romesco sauce is salvitxada. Salvitxada or “salsa de calcots” is a Catalan sauce originating in Valls, near Tarragona. It is served almost exclusively with calçots all over Catalonia at the calçotades, the traditional, beloved, festive, springtime, stand-up celebration of calcots and their sauce. Everyone wears an apron lest their clothes be ruined! No finer repast on the face of the Earth! The long offshoots of dug-up and re-buried winter onions are called calcots because of the 'shoes' of soil that are packed around each shoot, just as with endive and asparagus. When they are harvested they are olive wood-grilled over huge fires, then wrapped in newspaper, and allowed to steam inside for a spell. Still smoking hot, they are un-wrapped, flopped onto tables, and the fun begins. Each calcot is stripped and swirled about in crocks of romesco or a salvitxada sauce which is similar to romesco except that it is thickened with toast rubbed with fresh garlic, moistened with a little vinegar and then pulverized in the mortar with the pestle. You really should create a calcotada of your own with our handmade romesco and a huge mess of grilled scallions. You will be delighted. Oh, and remind us next time to inform you of the classic porrua, the handblown-glass, long-spouted wine imbiber. With one's head back and a porrua raised high, the stream of cold, red Catalan wine (a Priorat or Penedes) follows each and every calcot that found its way down a hatch. Everyone watches, everyone claps, everyone laughs and jeers if you spill so much as a drop!
