Evoke a restaurant experience by serving your grilled asparagus on top of delicious Spanish Romesco sauce with creamy burrata on the side.
Add our chorizo with red wine and patatas bravas to the mix and host a fun Spanish Tapas night!
Do ever surprise yourself by how much you enjoy humble vegetables in a restaurant while the same thing just doesn’t seem exciting at home? Well it all depends on how they are served and presented!
Let me show you a couple of tricks, that will bring your veg game to a new level. I am using grilled asparagus as an example. However you can use broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini or anything you love!
Sauce for Vegetables
I find that vegetables, served with sauces, are always much more delicious and enjoyable. Take this recipe of roasted asparagus with a luxurious Mornay sauce for instance. A dish fit for a festive table!
Another goodie is a recipe for mushrooms with creamy Marsala sauce. It goes so well with steak. My roasted carrots with lemon tahini sauce are always the first ones to disappear off the table.
Those sauce are divine but they are quite rich. Not something I want to eat in the summer. Romesco sauce is another matter entirely. Hailing from the sunny Spain, this sauce simply screams summer.
Romesco Sauce
If I had to describe what this sauce is like I would say it’s the Spanish answer to Italian pesto. The sauce comes from the Catalonia region of the country, and was originally created to serve with fish.
It turns out the sauce is good with many other things, and grilled vegetables are at the top of my personal list. I also love it with roasted or air fried potatoes and gnocchi. To this day, Romesco sauce is enjoyed with a variety of foods like grilled meat, fish, seafood and vegetables. It is crazy versatile and easy to fall in love with.
The recipe is extremely easy. All you need to do is to combine roasted red peppers, a spoonful of tomato paste, almonds, garlic, sherry vinegar, smoked Spanish paprika and good quality extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and blend it all together in a food processor or a blender.
Recipe Tips and Notes
- As I mentioned above the main ingredient, which gives the sauce its colour, comes from roasted red peppers. You can roast your own but I prefer to use a shortcut. I get mine from a jar.
- Apart from the main ingredients of the red peppers and almonds, the flavours come from a tomato paste, vinegar and garlic. I provided proportions, which suit my taste. However you can increase or decrease the amounts of garlic and vinegar. Start on the conservative side and add more if the taste is lacking.
- Grilled asparagus takes mere minutes. You want it to be charred but still firm to the bite. For thin spears, 5-7 minutes are more than enough. Don’t forget to keep turning them with a pair of tongs for even grilling. If your asparagus is extra thick, add 2-3 minutes to the cooking time.
- Finally, I drizzled the burrata and the asparagus with a touch of chilli oil, which added a nice hint of spice to the whole dish. I used Chinese chilli oil I had in my fridge. However, you can keep the spice out and use a good quality extra virgin olive.
- If you are not a fan of burrata, you can use a large dollop of creamy ricotta or even feta in this dish.
More Spanish Recipes to Try
- Padron Peppers (Traditional Spanish Tapas)
- Spanish Chicken in Bravas Sauce
- Easy Spanish Rice with Chicken and Shrimp (Paella)
- Chorizo in Red Wine (Spanish Tapas)
Grilled Asparagus with Romesco Sauce and Burrata
Ingredients
- 250g/ 3 large peppers roasted red peppers from a jar drained
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 100g/ 1 cup sliced blanched almonds
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1.5-2 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 50ml/3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt to taste
- 250g/8 oz asparagus
- 1 tsp olive oil
- flaked salt
- 1 ball burrata
- 1 tbsp chilli oil or olive oil
Instructions
- Make the romesco sauce by combining the roasted red peppers, tomato paste, almonds, garlic, sherry vinegar, smoked paprika, extra virgin olive oil with a pinch of salt in a food processor or a blender. Process until you have a paste. Taste and add more salt to taste. Set aside.
- Preheat a grill. Cut the tough ends off the asparagus spears and discard. Drizzle the asparagus with 1 tsp of olive oil, grill for 7-8 minutes over medium heat until the asparagus is bright green with grill marks on the outside. Asparagus will soften but will retain its bite. Increase the timing by a couple of minutes of your asparagus spears are extra thick.
- Spread the romesco sauce on a serving plate, top with the grilled asparagus and burrata. Sprinkle with flaked salt or sea salt and drizzle with the chilli oil or extra virgin olive oil. Serve with crusty bread as a starter or a side dish.
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