Catalan Picada
By: Barcelona Bites
Published: Monday, August 23, 2010 - 9:14pm

Ingredients




extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
15 blanched toasted almonds (or you can use hazelnuts or a combination)
1 inch a couple of slices of old Italian bread or baguette cut about thick
1/4 teaspoon salt
a handful of parsley

Preparation

1 Heat 1/4" olive oil in a pan 2 Add 2 whole peeled cloves of garlic and bread to the oil. 3 Fry the bread on both sides until golden brown and crispy. Remove bread and garlic from the pan 4 Add the parsley to the pan and fry just until it turns dark green and slightly crispy. 5 Using either a mortar and pestle or a food processor, grind parsley, fried bread, garlic, almonds and salt into a paste. 6 Add just enough olive oil to cover and continue to blend.

About


Picada can be made a zillion different ways. It's sort of a like a pesto but much more versatile and it is used to thicken and flavor dishes rather than as a sauce. Its most basic version has parsley, almonds, garlic and toasted bread all pounded together with either a mortar and pestle or a food processor. Other possible additions include hazelnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, saffron, liver, various herbs and even chocolate!
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