In classical French cooking, the term "mother sauce" refers to any one of five basic sauces, which are the starting points for creating an endless amount of recipes. This recipe is Chef Paul Kahan’s take on a classic 'sauce tomate' - one of the French mother sauces that has become the mother sauce of his award-winning restaurant, avec, for the last 19 years. This piquillo pepper sauce brings a smoky-sweet depth to the classic tomato base, creating a bold, versatile sauce that works in a wide range of dishes.

TYPE Sauce
SERVES 4
DIFFICULTY Easy
PREP TIME 5 MIN
COOK TIME 30 MIN

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 8 small shallots, thinly sliced
  • 8oz roasted piquillo peppers, jarred, and their juice
  • 2 cups whole peeled canned tomatoes, and their juice
  • 2 tablespoon sherry vinegar
  • salt and black pepper

Directions

  1. Heat the olive oil in the All-Clad Saucier or D3 Sauce Pan over medium heat.
  2. Add the garlic and shallot and cook until tender, 5 minutes.
  3. Add the peppers and tomatoes, gently breaking up the tomatoes with a spoon, and bring to a simmer. This is where the piquillo pepper sauce starts to develop its signature balance of sweetness, acidity, and gentle heat.
  4. Decrease the heat to low and cook for 30 minutes until the liquid has slightly reduced.
  5. Let cool slightly and use an All-Clad Immersion Blender to blend the sauce until smooth.
  6. Return the sauce back to the saucier and heat back to a simmer.
  7. Add the sherry vinegar, salt, and pepper, and simmer gently until the sauce has thickened - but not so much that the sauce mounds, about 5 to 10 minutes. Once finished, this piquillo sauce should be smooth, richly flavored, and ideal for spooning over vegetables, meats, or eggs.

Pro Tip:

Use this sauce to cook eggs in! Bring to a simmer in an All-Clad Universal Pan and crack in a few eggs. Simmer gently until whites are just set - about 5 minutes. Eat with lots of bread. This piquillo pepper sauce also works well as a base for braised dishes, grain bowls, or as a flavorful finishing sauce for roasted proteins.

What is piquillo?

Piquillo peppers are a small, pointed variety of sweet red pepper native to Northern Spain, most famously cultivated around the town of Lodosa in the Navarra region. Their name translates directly from Spanish as "little beak," a nod to their distinctive tapered shape.

What sets them apart from regular roasted red bell peppers is their depth of flavor. Piquillos are traditionally hand-picked and fire-roasted over open flames, then packed in their own juices - a process that concentrates their natural sweetness and adds a subtle smokiness no oven-roasted substitute can fully replicate.

Ranging between 500 and 1,000 Scoville heat units, they bring zero real heat to a dish. Jarred piquillos are widely available across the U.S. and are a pantry staple worth keeping on hand year-round.

A person wearing glasses and a brown plaid shirt smiles gently while standing indoors against a neutral background, conveying a relaxed and warm atmosphere.A person wearing glasses and a brown plaid shirt smiles gently while standing indoors against a neutral background, conveying a relaxed and warm atmosphere.

RECIPE BY

Paul Kahan

Chef and partner Paul Kahan has become the nationally recognizable face of Chicago chefs. Passionately seasonal, unconventionally creative, and dedicated to the inspiration of classical cuisine, Kahan has received international acclaim for Blackbird, avec, The Publican, Big Star, Publican Quality Meats, Dove’s Luncheonette, Publican Quality Bread, Publican Tavern O’Hare. Awarded Outstanding Chef by the James Beard Foundation in 2013, Winner: Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America in 2014, and Winner: Best Chefs in America in 2004, Kahan has earned the praise of many who claim him to be one of America’s most influential working chefs. In 2018, his cookbook “Cheers to the Publican, Repast and Present: Recipes and Ramblings from an American Beer Hall," won the IACP award in the “chefs and restaurants” category. In 2019, Kahan released his second book, ‘Cooking For Good Times,” which was named ‘One of The Best Cookbooks Of The Year’ by the New York Times Book Review. A Chicagoan through and through, Kahan is known for developing relationships with Midwestern farmers—leaving a permanent mark on his culinary outlook.

To learn more about this chef, please visit their website at https://www.oneoffhospitality.com

Connect with them on social https://www.instagram.com/paulkahan/