"Goes with Anything" Red Pepper Sauce
Quick, luxurious, and versatile.
I don’t remember how or why I decided to put all these ingredients together. But they work! They make the most delicious sauce I’ve ever made up, and it’s tasty on EVERYTHING. It’s especially good if you’ve got people coming over and you’re stumped on how to make it feel special - the color of this sauce is spectacular and it tastes luxurious. It takes 5 minutes to make (yay for blenders), and it’s savory, umami, earthy, and bright!
Ingredients:
1 jar of roasted red peppers or roasted piquillo peppers. Whatever you have in the cabinet is great.
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice from 1/2 lemon
A handful of almonds or walnut or pecans (1/4 cup max)
Salt to taste
Instructions:
Dump the jar of peppers (with the liquid in the jar!) into your blender. Add all the other ingredients to the blender. Blend until very smooth (start with just a little salt and add until it’s to your liking). More nuts = more richness, so if you want it to feel even more luxe, add a few more nuts!
That’s it!
What to eat it on:
Pasta. Add 1/4 cup of the starchy pasta cooking liquid and toss over your pasta. Top with parsley.
Any roasted veggie.
Mushrooms. My fav is a giant maitake, seared in a pan with salt, and then topped with this sauce. Y.ou can also roast a pile of mushrooms with smoked paprika and top
Grain bowls.
Eggs. My favorite is with a tortilla espanola, but also great with frittata, omelet, over easy, scrambled.
Toast.
Fish, cooked simply. Especially great with baked cod or halibut, but also good with salmon.
Beans!
Potatoes in any format.
Shrimp with garlic and butter. This sauce melds with the butter to taste extra special.
Literally anything else you choose.
Some potential twists
This is a pretty versatile sauce! You can adapt it for different kinds of cuisine, if you want it to taste a little more specialized.
For something a little spicier, add as much fresh chili as you like to the sauce (this might be half a jalapeno for some people, a full thai pepper for others).
To bring out the smoky flavor even more, add a little smoked paprika while you blend it.
To punch up the sour flavor, add sumac.
For something that would go well with a mezze platter, a little ground cumin and coriander, plus a half spoonful of tahini, will set this up as a great hummus accompaniment.
Enjoy!
-Hana