Original Catalan Romesco Sauce

This salad dressing recipe, the romesco sauce,
is not like anything you've ever tasted before.
Catalan textures, Mediterranean aromas and
healthy ingredients like hazelnuts, and olive oil
make it an exquisite salad sauce with personality.

Ingredients:
Half head garlic – roasted and peeled
20 hazelnuts – roasted and peeled
20 almonds – roasted and peeled
4 pebrots de romesco, or nyores, or ancho peppers – seeded
6 small ripe tomatoes – roasted, peeled, and seeded
3/4 teaspoon ground sweet red pepper
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Soak the dried peppers in room temperature water for an hour.
When you are ready to start the romesco sauce,
scald them by pouring boiling water over them,
and letting them sit in hot water for at least five minutes,
or until they sink to the bottom of the bowl.
Remove the seeds of the dried peppers, and cut them in half.
With a teaspoon, scrape the inner pepper skin
to collect the edible pepper meat.
Roast the half head of garlic and the tomatoes
in the oven for half an hour as for a escalivada.
When they are done, peel them.
Peel the hazelnuts and almonds by scalding them in hot water
for a few minutes, and toast them in the oven or in a pan.
Add the hazelnuts and almonds to a mortar
and crush and pulverize them with the pestle.
Add the roasted tomatoes and garlic cloves,
and mash them into the mixture.
Slowly, add the oil and mix well.
Add the vinegar and work it into the mixture.
Finally, add the sweet red pepper,
and the salt. Continue working the mixture
until you get a thick-textured paste.