One of my favourite sauces to serve with fish is the catalan sauce «romesco». I fell in love with in during a trip to Barcelona and every time it lands on my plate, I’m desperately searching for a spoon, to devour it to the last drop. So I decided to turn it into a soup. Roasted tomatoes and sweet red peppers, blanched almonds and the intense flavour of smoked paprica. What’s not to like about that. This soup gets all it’s delicious creaminess from the ground almonds, without the addition of cream. Serve it with prawns and your guests will be asking for the recipe.
Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup with Prawns
You can also call this a "romesco" soup. The amazing catalan sauce gets a slight twist by turning into an comforting, soothing soup served with prawns. Don't want the prawns? No problem. Just serve it with some home-made croutons. It's delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 red bell peppers halved, seeds removed
- ½ kg ripe tomatoes (about 5 medium), halved
- 2 medium onions thickly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves peeled and left whole
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup blanched roasted almonds (see note)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp chili flakes (optional)
- ½ Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 12 large prawns peeled and cooked
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175° C. In an oven tray, put tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes.
- Transfer baked vegetables in a blender. Add the almonds, paprika, chili and vinegar and blend on high speed until everything is very smooth. Pour mixture in a pot over low heat. Add some water if it's too thick. Taste soup and adjust seasoning. Serve with the prawns and crusty bread.
Notes
To roast almonds, bake in a 175° C, fan oven, for about 6-7 minutes until fragrant. If you don’t have blanched almonds, you can use unpeeled. In fact, the almonds taste better unblanched!
