This is the million dollar question. I’m sure you’ve thought about it more than once when you’re on your way to the supermarket to get romescu sauce for your weekend calçotada, and suddenly an orange jar appears announcing “calçot sauce”. You don’t know whether to take it or not, you don’t know if it’s the same or not, you don’t know how bad you’ll look if you make the wrong choice.
That’s why we bring you the solution to your doubt(and a recipe), so that next time you can explain what is the difference between calçot sauce and romesco sauce, or you can dare to prepare them yourself and have a blast on your calçotadas of the future. However , we warn you that the differences are subtle and that, in the end, the boundaries are very blurred.
Romescu sauce
Although you might think otherwise, the romesco sauce was not born as a specific sauce for calçots. Although it is used for it, this sauce was born much earlier in the region of Tarragona and is usually made with fish stock and, very important, choricero peppers (more bitter), the main difference with its sister sauce.
Apparently , this sauce was born in the fishing district of Tarragona, the Serrallo, where they prepare a dish called “Cazuela de romesco”(Cassola de romesco in Catalan), a sort of fish casserole with the usual ingredients of this sauce: tomato, garlic, chorizo bell pepper, almonds and hazelnuts, parsley, vinegar and paprika.
This sauce, moreover, since, in its original version, is a little less liquid than its calçotera counterpart due to the fact that it is finished with some fish stock that is reduced in the stew.
Calçot sauce
This sauce has been designed specifically for the flavor of the calçots and, above all, it is somewhat simpler and lighter. It is composed mainly of tomatoes, ñoras (a type of dried bell pepper, sweeter than the choricero), olive oil, vinegar, nuts, garlic and salt, with a simpler result that enhances the flavor of the calçots.
do differences really exist?
Although the recipes say one thing, the truth is that it is difficult to differentiate one sauce from the other beyond the detail of the flavor of the ñora or the choricero bell pepper. According to the recipe that appears in the Corpus de la cocina catalana, both sauces are indistinguishable, and the slsa calçot refers to the romesco, as if one were the daughter of the other.
According to this Corpus, the recipe for romescu consists of:
- 6 roasted tomatoes
- 2 blanched romesco peppers
- 1/2 head of roasted garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 15 g toasted almonds
- 15 g roasted hazelnuts
- Oil, vinegar, salt and pepper
The book says that the ingredients are crushed (with a pestle and mortar or blender) and then bound with the oil and vinegar until the desired texture is reached. However, the same guide says that this sauce is called by other names, such as salvichada or salsa roja, and lists up to eight different versions of the basic recipe.
In short, with the romescu sauce, as with the omelette and other traditional recipes, each house has its own, and each master has his own book. So, whatever you call it, they both work and the best thing you can do is to design your own recipe to create an unmistakable and personalized romescu or calçot sauce.