To follow on from my Very British Scotch Eggs, I decided to tackle the very Catalan calcot sauce. Traditionally, this is a romesco type sauce made with ground almonds, hazelnuts, breadcrumbs, garlic, tomato and roast peppers. They have competitions to make the best and, in true catalan style, the best are made from scratch using freshly roasted tomatoes and peppers and lovingly combines with a mortar and pestle.
It’s served with calcots, which I can only describe as giant spring onions which are roasted over hot flames, then consumed by peeling off the charred outer and dipping into the sauce. It’s lovely!
But I’m a lazy chef. And I don’t want breadcrumbs. So this is my own version. It’s pretty garlic-y. And I needed something to spread it on as calcot season is now over and I’ll have to wait until February before being able to get them again. In fact, the sauce might just disappear from the shops soon as well! Luckily. I’ll have this one.
And it makes a shedload (of spread). The flatbreads, they didn’t last so long in the house!
Cheesy Flax Flatbread and Calcot spread
Ingredients
Flax flat breads
Calcot spread
Instructions
Flax flat breads
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Preheat the oven to 200*C.
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Combine all the ingredients (except the water) for the flatbreads in a food processor and process until the sundried tomato breaks up. Then add the fizzy water and pulse to form a paste.
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Spread the paste onto an upside down baking tray lined with parchment. Put another piece of parchment over the top and, using a bottle of wine (!), flatten the dough until it's about 5mm thick. I suppose you could use a rolling pin, but I didn't have one.
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Remove the top parchment and put the tray in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.
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When cool, cut into squares. Or strips. Or triangles. Or whatever you want!
Calcot spread
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Put a small pan full on water to boil onto the stove. Make a cross in the tomato skins to make them easier to peel. Then stick 'em in the boiling water until the skins come loose. Remove from the boil and throw in the sundried tomatoes to soften them a bit.
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Peel the bulb of garlic, and throw the peeled garlic, peeled tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, hazelnut flour, roasted peppers and the sea salt into the food processor and process.
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While it's still going, slowly add the olive oil to form a paste.
If you want more of a 'sauce' than a spread, just add more oil. -
That's it. Store in a jar for future use. Use it as a sauce for courgette noodles, a filling for baked sweet potato, on the side with roasted vegetables or as a topping for chicken breast, steak or whatever.. the possibilities are endless. Which is just as well, because this makes loads!
This looks so good and I can not wait to try this.