Romesco Sauce substitute

Best substitute

Ten-minute pantry romesco

Makes about 1 cup: 1 cup drained jarred roasted red peppers, ⅓ cup toasted almonds, 1 garlic clove, 1 slice toasted bread torn up, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tbsp sherry vinegar, ¼ cup olive oil, ½ tsp salt

Best for grilled vegetables and calcots

Close match

This is not a substitute so much as romesco made with substitutions for the two hard-to-find items - jarred piquillo or roasted red peppers standing in for hand-roasted ones, and smoked paprika standing in for dried nora or choricero chillies. Blend it coarse, not smooth. It tastes genuinely like romesco: sweet, smoky, nutty, faintly sour, with a sandy body from the nuts and bread. Compared to the real thing it is a little sweeter and less deeply raisin-like, because nora chillies bring a dried-fruit complexity that paprika only hints at.

Other romesco sauce substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Ajvar (Balkan roasted red pepper spread)
Different texture
Use the same amount improved by stirring in nuts and vinegar
Sold in most European and Middle Eastern groceries, ajvar is roasted red peppers and sometimes aubergine cooked down with oil, garlic and a little vinegar.
What changes
It shares romesco's sweet-smoky roasted pepper backbone and its thick, spoonable body, so it does the same job on a plate. The gap is nuts and acid: ajvar tastes softer, jammier and rounder, without romesco's gritty almond body or its sharp sherry vinegar lift.
Best for
grilled vegetables, fish and chicken, sandwiches and toast, dipping bread
Stir two tablespoons of toasted crushed almonds and two teaspoons of sherry or red wine vinegar into half a cup of ajvar and you are most of the way to romesco. Add a pinch of smoked paprika if the ajvar is the mild kind. Hot ajvar already has chilli in it, so taste before adding more.
3Muhammara (roasted pepper and walnut dip)
Different taste
Use the same amount
The Levantine cousin of romesco, and structurally almost identical: roasted red peppers, nuts, bread or breadcrumbs, garlic, oil and acid.
What changes
The differences are the nut and the acid. Walnuts instead of almonds make it noticeably more bitter and tannic, and pomegranate molasses instead of sherry vinegar makes it sweet-sour and fruity rather than cleanly sharp. It usually carries cumin and more chilli heat too, so a dish made with it reads Middle Eastern instead of Catalan.
Best for
grilled vegetables and aubergine, lamb, flatbread and dips, roasted cauliflower
Delicious in its own right, so do not treat it as a compromise. If you want it closer to romesco, stir in a spoonful of toasted ground almonds and a splash of sherry vinegar to cut the pomegranate sweetness.
4Jarred red pepper pesto or sun-dried tomato pesto
Different taste
Use the same amount
The supermarket-shelf answer.
What changes
Red pepper pesto is sweet roasted pepper plus nuts plus cheese and oil, which lands close. Sun-dried tomato pesto swaps the sweet-roasted note for a concentrated, savoury, slightly leathery tomato flavour - saltier, tangier and more intense than romesco, and darker on the plate. Both usually contain Parmesan or Pecorino, which adds a cheesy savouriness romesco does not have.
Best for
grilled vegetables, pasta, chicken and fish, sandwiches and toast
These are much saltier than homemade romesco, so use a little less and hold back salt elsewhere. Loosen the jar with a tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of vinegar - jarred pestos are pasty and romesco should be loose enough to spoon and spread. Not suitable if you need the sauce to be dairy free.
5Basil pesto
Different taste
Use the same amount
Wrong flavour, right role.
What changes
Pesto is a thick, oily, nut-and-garlic pounded sauce spooned over grilled things, exactly like romesco, and on grilled vegetables or fish it will taste very good. But it is green, herbal and bright where romesco is red, sweet, smoky and earthy, so nobody will mistake one for the other. A plate of grilled calcots or asparagus with pesto is a different dish, not a Catalan one.
Best for
grilled vegetables, fish, chicken, potatoes, pasta
Choose this when the recipe uses romesco as a finishing sauce and you simply need something good on the plate tonight. Do not choose it when romesco is named in the dish title or when the sauce is meant to be the Catalan signature. Stirring in a teaspoon of smoked paprika does not turn pesto into romesco - it just makes muddy pesto.
6Roasted red peppers blended with olive oil and vinegar (no nuts)
Different texture
Use the same amount but expect a thinner sauce
The least-bad option if you have a nut allergy or no nuts in the house.
What changes
Blend a jar of roasted red peppers with a garlic clove, smoked paprika, sherry vinegar, salt and olive oil. You keep the sweet smoky pepper flavour and the colour, and you lose the thing that makes romesco feel substantial - the almonds and bread give it body and a slightly sandy, satisfying texture. Without them it is a loose pepper puree that slides off food rather than clinging to it.
Best for
fish, grilled vegetables, eggs, nut-free versions of Catalan dishes
Thicken it with two tablespoons of toasted breadcrumbs or a slice of blended toasted bread, which is traditional in romesco anyway and gets you most of the body back with no nuts. Sunflower seeds, toasted and blended, are a decent nut-free stand-in for the almonds if seeds are safe for your eater.

What is Romesco Sauce?

Romesco Sauce is Romesco sauce, or salsa romesco, is a thick Catalan sauce pounded from roasted red peppers, dried nora or choricero chillies, toasted almonds, garlic, stale bread, olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Cooking tips

Romesco is doing four jobs at once: sweetness and colour from roasted peppers, smoky earthy depth from dried nora or choricero chillies, body and richness from toasted almonds and bread, and a sour lift from sherry vinegar. When a substitute tastes off, work out which of the four is missing rather than adding more of everything.
Never blend romesco or any of its substitutes completely smooth. The sauce is meant to have a slightly coarse, sandy texture from the nuts and bread, which is how it grips grilled vegetables and fish. A silky puree slides off the plate and tastes thinner than it is.
Toast the nuts, always. Raw almonds taste chalky and give the sauce a dull, pasty quality. Five minutes in a dry pan over medium heat until they smell nutty transforms the whole sauce, and this applies just as much when you are fixing up ajvar or a jarred pesto.
If a recipe calls for nora, choricero or Marcona almonds and you cannot find them, do not abandon the dish. One soaked dried ancho or two dried guajillo chillies stand in well for nora, and ordinary toasted blanched almonds stand in for Marcona. Smoked paprika covers for the chillies at a pinch.
Romesco tastes better after an hour and much better the next day, because the garlic softens and the bread swells and binds the sauce. Make it before you cook anything else, and if it has thickened in the fridge, loosen it with a spoonful of warm water and a splash of olive oil rather than more oil alone.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave romesco sauce out?

If the recipe is grilled vegetables or fish with romesco, the sauce is the dish - leave it out and you have plain grilled vegetables. But it is also one of the easiest sauces to improvise: a jar of roasted red peppers, a handful of toasted almonds, a garlic clove, smoked paprika, vinegar and olive oil in a blender gets you there in ten minutes. If romesco is a side condiment in a bigger meal, then yes, skip it, and a good aioli or a drizzle of olive oil and lemon will keep the plate from feeling bare.

What can I use instead of nora peppers or choricero peppers?

One or two dried ancho chillies, soaked in hot water for twenty minutes and blended in, are the best swap - they bring the same dried-fruit, raisiny sweetness with mild heat. Dried guajillo is slightly brighter and tangier and also works well. Failing dried chillies entirely, one to two teaspoons of good smoked paprika, ideally sweet Spanish pimenton, gives you the smoke and colour but not the fruit depth, so add a teaspoon of tomato paste alongside it to fill in some body.

Is romesco the same as red pepper pesto?

They overlap but are not the same. Both are pounded sauces of red peppers, nuts, garlic and oil. Romesco is Catalan, uses dried nora chillies and stale bread, is sharpened with sherry vinegar and contains no cheese, so it tastes smoky, earthy and tangy. Jarred red pepper pesto is usually Italian in style, contains Parmesan or Pecorino, and skews sweeter, saltier and cheesier. Red pepper pesto substitutes for romesco perfectly well in a pinch, just cut the added salt.

What do you serve romesco with if you cannot get calcots?

Calcots are a Catalan spring onion charred over fire, and the whole dish exists to deliver romesco. Any sweet allium grilled until soft and blackened does the same job: large spring onions, leeks halved lengthways, or wedges of red onion. Beyond that, romesco is excellent with grilled asparagus, charred broccoli or cauliflower, roasted potatoes, grilled prawns, and any firm white fish. It is not really a pasta sauce, though it is very good spread on toast under a fried egg.

Can I make romesco without nuts?

Yes, and it is still good, just lighter. Leave the almonds out and lean harder on bread for body - blend in a thick slice of toasted country bread, or two tablespoons of dry breadcrumbs, which is traditional in romesco anyway. The sauce will be a bit less rich and less substantial in the mouth. Toasted sunflower seeds are a good nut-free replacement for the almonds if seeds are safe for the person eating.

Related substitutes

More sauces & condiments substitutes

Romesco Sauce substitute

Other romesco sauce substitutes

2Ajvar (Balkan roasted red pepper spread)

3Muhammara (roasted pepper and walnut dip)

4Jarred red pepper pesto or sun-dried tomato pesto

5Basil pesto

6Roasted red peppers blended with olive oil and vinegar (no nuts)