About this recipe
Escalivada means roasted in embers, and the whole trick is roasting the vegetables until the skins blacken and then steaming them so the skins slip off. The almond sauce is thickened with nuts alone rather than the usual bread.
Ingredients
- 700 g boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 0.75 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1.5 tsp fine sea salt
- 15 g fresh flat-leaf parsleychopped
- 0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2.5 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 4 cloves garlic cloves
- 150 g roasted red peppers from a jardrained
- 90 g blanched almonds
- 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions red onionhalved, skin on
- 2 medium aubergines
- 3 peppers red peppers
Method
- 1
Heat the oven to 210C fan. Rub the whole peppers, aubergines and onion halves with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and spread them in a large roasting tin with two of the garlic cloves, unpeeled.
- 2
Roast for 45 to 55 minutes, turning once, until the pepper skins are blistered and blackened in patches and the aubergines have collapsed and look deflated.
Take them well past the point they look done. Under-roasted escalivada will not peel cleanly and stays watery instead of silky.
- 3
Tip everything into a bowl and cover tightly with a plate or cling film. Leave for 15 minutes; the trapped steam loosens the skins.
- 4
Meanwhile, toast the almonds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until pale gold, then tip out to cool.
- 5
Rub the chicken thighs with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the smoked paprika, half a teaspoon of the salt and the pepper. Leave to sit while you finish the sauce.
- 6
For the sauce, blitz the toasted almonds in a blender until finely ground. Add the jarred peppers, the two remaining raw garlic cloves, the roasted garlic squeezed from its skins, the sherry vinegar, chilli flakes and half a teaspoon of salt. Blend, then pour in the extra virgin olive oil in a thin stream until thick and spoonable.