A New (and Genius) Way to Romesco 🎉

Plus: Nashville & Baguettes

Sep 20, 2024

Pizza Friends, hello! And happy Friday.

Today I have three things to share with you: a brilliant recipe for romesco sauce from Joe Yonan’s latest book, Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking, a pizza event in Nashville, and a recipe for baguettes made with leftover pizza dough.

Let’s start with the romesco, which, if you are unfamiliar, is a sauce originating from the Catalonia region of Spain, made with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, almonds, stale bread, smoked paprika, sherry vinegar, and olive oil.

Something that always deters me from making it is the first step: roasting and peeling the peppers. Of course, you can use jarred roasted red peppers, but if you are someone who suffers from feeling the need to make everything from scratch, it can be hard reaching for that jar.

Enter Joe Yonan’s romesco, which calls for throwing everything onto a sheet pan — chopped peppers, tomatoes, almonds, stale bread, and unpeeled garlic cloves — tossing it all with olive oil and salt, and roasting the mixture at high heat for 15 minutes.

Once the mixture has browned in spots, you remove the pan from the oven, extract the garlic cloves and peel them, an effortless task, and throw everything into a food processor or blender — no peeling of the peppers necessary! You blend the mixture with spices and vinegar, and adjust to taste as needed.

In the intro to the recipe, Joe writes: “Trust me, it tastes every bit as vibrant and can’t-stop-eating good as the stuff that requires multiple pans and bowls.” He’s right!

The above-pictured platter essentially was dinner for me last night because I couldn’t stop eating the romesco. I blanched some cauliflower, chopped some other veg, opened a bag of Monterey Farm “arti hearts,” which are hearty and meaty, and cooked a round of pizza dough dressed solely with olive oil and sea salt. It all tasted so good.

This is exactly the kind of appetizer I love serving for a pizza night — veg forward, light, tasty. In fact, I included a very pared down romsesco sauce recipe in Pizza Night, which I love, but it’s less authentic than Joe’s and if you make the roasted red peppers from scratch, well, it’s a lot more work, too.

Incidentally, Joe uses this same method to make muhamarra, a Middle Eastern dip made with roasted red peppers and walnuts. I’m excited to try that next as well as so many other recipes in this beautiful new book. Find the recipe below.

Nashville Friends?

On October 19th at 3 pm, I’ll be doing a “Pizza at Home” demo at Pizza City Fest Nashville. Comedian AJ Jacobs will be moderating the demo, and if you live nearby, I’d love to meet you! The lineup of pizza vendors all weekend looks incredible, and on Sunday, one of my pizza heroes, Justin de Leon of Appolonia’s Pizzeria in Los Angeles, is doing a pan pizza demo. His pizza is insanely delicious. Get your tickets here!

Leftover Pizza Dough? Make Baguettes 🥖

A few months ago, I rolled an extra round of pizza dough (the outdoor variation of the Neapolitanish pizza dough recipe from Pizza Night) into a log, threw it in my Challenger Bread Pan, and baked it. It emerged golden and crusty with a wild amorphous crumb. I’ve been refining the process ever since and shared the recipe on my blog yesterday. Get it here:

Crusty Open Crumb Baguettes

The Recipe: Joe Yonan’s Romesco

For this recipe, you’ll need: garlic, almonds, tomatoes, stale bread, peppers, salt, olive oil, vinegar, smoked paprika, and, if you wish, cayenne. I left out the cayenne to keep it more palatable for my children.

First you’ll roughly chop up the peppers and tear the bread into pieces; then you’ll toss them on a sheet pan with the tomatoes, unpeeled garlic, and almonds. Toss with olive oil and salt: