This is an appropriate elegant , simple and very tasty starter to open any food this Christmas . And it's completely vegetarian. "Piquillo" [peekeejo] is a kind of red pepper with origin in Spain. Find more info about it here. If you can not find piquillo peppers at your location, buy simple red peppers in can.
Ingredients ( 4 people):
16 large leeks
1 can of tomato sauce about 400 grams / 0.88 Lb
10 piquillo peppers (red sweet pepper of 7 cm / 2.5 inches approx already cooked in a can)
100 grams / 3.53 oz of roasted almonds
2 cloves of garlic
salt
Wine vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
In a large pot of salted water boil the leeks after discarding the green parts. Try to make all the same length leeks . Leeks can be cooked in about 15 or 20 minutes. We remove , drain them and set aside.
Now we will prepare the pepper sauce . We crush garlic cloves and almonds with a handful of salt in a mortar. We incorporate tomato and red peppers to the blender pot and mix with mortar paste , a little oil and a vinegar.
Now let fry the leeks in a frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil until golden . Remove them . At the same oil we briefly pass sauce to warm and pour over the leeks.
Very simple, very mediterranean, very healthy and very cheap.