Here’s a fantastic recipe for Grilled Baby Leeks with Romesco Sauce.
Grilled Baby Leeks with Romesco Sauce
Make the Romesco sauce ahead (up to 3 days), and then grill up the baby leeks when you're ready to serve them. Serve the sauce at room temperature with the grilled leeks.
Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 13 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 small ancho chile, seeded
- 3 tablespoons hazelnuts
- Two 1/2-inch-thick slices baguette, toasted & torn into 1-inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons roasted almonds, preferably Marcona, coarsely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 2 Roma tomatoes—peeled, seeded & coarsely chopped
- 1 roasted red pepper from a jar, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 16 baby leeks or thick scallions, trimmed
Directions:
- Light a grill. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small heatproof bowl, cover the ancho with hot tap water and soak until softened, about 15 minutes. Drain.
- Meanwhile, in a pie plate, toast the hazelnuts in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until fragrant and lightly browned. Let the hazelnuts cool, then transfer them to a kitchen towel and rub them together to remove the skins. Transfer the hazelnuts to a work surface and let cool completely, then coarsely chop.
- In a food processor, combine the ancho with the hazelnuts, toasted baguette, almonds and garlic and process to a smooth paste. Add the tomatoes, roasted red pepper and vinegar and puree. With the machine on, slowly pour in the 1/4 cup of olive oil and process until blended and smooth. Scrape the Romesco sauce into a bowl, stir in the parsley and season with salt and black pepper.
- Brush the leeks with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over high heat until charred all over, about 3 minutes. Serve with the Romesco sauce alongside.
Tips:
- If you're not a fan of hazelnuts, or if you don't have any handy, you can use all almonds instead.
- Marcona almonds can be found at Costco, World Market or in gourmet supermarkets. Use regular almonds if you can't find Marcona. You should attempt to find them though... they're amazing!
- You can peel a firm-fleshed Roma tomato with a vegetable peeler. To seed the tomato, cut it in half horizontally, hold the tomato over a bowl, cut side down, and gently squeeze out the seeds and gel, coaxing them out with your finger if necessary.
- Food & Wine suggests serving this with Spain's most famous sparkling white wine- cava.
SOURCE: RecipeGirl.com (via Food and Wine)
