Romesco de Peix

Romesco de Peix is Catalan, and more exactly Tarragona's, from the fishing quarter of El Serrallo. It is not the cold romesco sauce people spoon beside grilled vegetables. Here the romesco is the body of the stew: ñora pepper, fried bread, garlic, tomato, almonds, hazelnuts, and olive oil pounded into a picada, the Catalan thickener that gives the pot its depth.

The method that decides it is the picada. Fry the bread and garlic gently, toast the nuts, soak the ñoras until their flesh softens, then pound or blend everything to a rough paste before it ever meets the fish. If you rush that base, the stew tastes thin and separate. Get it right and the broth turns brick red, glossy, and thick enough to cling to a spoon.

Use firm white fish that will not collapse: monkfish, hake, sea bass, turbot, or cod loin. If ñoras are hard to find where you are, use dried ancho chile for body with a little sweet pimentón de la Vera for the Spanish smoke, and know it will be close but not the same. No hace falta haber pisado España. You need good fish, a proper picada, and the sense not to boil shellfish to rubber.

Once the sauce is made, the stew moves quickly. Fish in first, prawns and clams at the end, then rest it five minutes so the sauce settles around everything. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.