Prawns in Romesco Sauce with Cabbage

At the recent opening of Union Market, I spent some time talking to Simon of Olives Et Al who provide the olives, artichokes, anchovies, etc. There were plenty of samples to taste and liking them so much, I’ve been buying them most weeks since. I love olives but am often disappointed with the supermarket and deli offerings which are often soft and tasting only of the herbs they’re seasoned with. Simon’s olives actually tasted like olives and were firm and meaty in texture.

Simon kindly offered to send me some samples of some of their other products and a couple of weeks later, a box full of stuff arrived on my doorstep.

One of the jars that caught my attention straight away was the romesco sauce. We’ve made this before and enjoyed it with fish, I even tried it with pasta which wasn’t a huge success since my version was rather dry but I still think it has potential. The Olives Et Al version was much wetter than the sauce Stephen and I made and it looked like it would work well with some rice to soak up all the flavours. Remembering the fish from last time, we also added some prawns and some cabbage, peppers, onions and tomatoes that were hanging around in the fridge. Another dollop of the romesco sauce and we had a quick and easy, Spanish style dish.

I’m not usually a big fan of ready-made sauces but this was very convenient and worked well with the rice. The sauce itself had a good flavour without overpowering the delicate prawns and had plenty of tasty, crunchy nuts. While our own version didn’t work particularly well with pasta, I think this one would do because it had an oilier texture. There’s half a jar left so that may well make an appearance soon.

Prawns with Romesco Sauce
Serves Two

1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 green pepper, sliced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Splash white wine
2 tablespoons romesco sauce
1/2 tin tomatoes
1/2 savoy cabbage, finely shredded
Prawns

Start by softening the onion and garlic in some oil. Add the green pepper and allow this to soften too.

Deglaze the pan with a large splash of white wine and allow this to cook for a couple of minutes so that the alcohol burns off.

Next, add the paprika and the romesco sauce, along with the tomatoes and stir. Add the cabbage and allow this to almost cook through, about five minutes. Finally, add the prawns and cook for 3-4 minutes. Serve with rice and more romesco sauce.