Tapas: Calçots Con Romesco (Grilled Scallions with Romesco)

I first had this dish in a Spanish Tapas Restaurant in Orlando, Florida. It was many years ago, so I can't recall much other than I really enjoyed it...enough to store it as one of my manyyyy food memories. Calçots are a variety of onion and a delicacy in Spain. They are similar to the scallions we get here in North America, so that is what I used. For this dish, you drizzle them with a bit of olive oil and grill them, ideally until there are some blackened/charred bits happening. Then you simply serve them with a swirl of romesco sauce. A garnish of more chopped toasted almonds is nice too. Not only are they delicious, they are really fun to eat, just use your hands and drag the scallions through the romesco. Pile them onto olive oil grilled bread... DELICIOUS. (bonus if you have some char on the bread too...something about the combination of char and romesco is heaven.)

Calçots con Romesco is a common tapas dish in Spain, so it's nice served with other bites on the table to make up a larger spread. I made a simple meal out of this dish, crusty bread grilled with olive oil, and Espinacas con Garbanzo (Spinach with Chickpeas, another common tapas dish in Spain of which I will share and link below soon). I really recommend giving this dish a try, it's simple but incredibly delicious, and also a fun way to eat especially with friends.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of scallions (about 6 per person depending on the size)
• olive oil for grilling
• Romesco Suace (as little or as much as you like...I tend to use lots and dip and swirl my crusty bread around in it...the Romesco sauce recipe makes 3 cups, so plenty!!)
• S & P

Method: 

1. I don't have an outside grill - if you do, by all means use it. I found using a cast iron pan gave me the best results inside. Simply heat a swirl of olive oil in the pan (medium high heat), add whole scallions, season with salt and pepper. Use tongs to turn over as needed until they are softened and charred. 
2. To serve: swirl Romesco in the bottom of a shallow bowl, (I prefer my Romesco Sauce to be room temp, or gently heated, NOT fridge cold) then top with scallions and a sprinkle of chopped toasted almonds. Serve with a side of grilled bread and any other tapas dish you like.