Pimento Pepper Rouille
on Aug 15, 2018, Updated Aug 06, 2024
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Rouille with pimentos is a little bit of magic in sauce form.
If you are thinking, “What is this fancy-pants-sounding recipe?” I can hardly blame you. Rouille is a classic French condiment usually served with all kinds of fish and shellfish soups and stews, like this Provencal Fish Stew. The classic recipe that this sauce serenades is most often Bouillabaisse, another hoity-toity-sounding French word, but in the end, it’s just French for “fish stew.”
So rouille (like almost everything) comes in loads of varieties, from thick mayonnaise-like versions to thinner sauces. It can be yellow or orange or red. Rouille means rust, which refers to its orangey color. It can contain peppers (of all kinds), spicy ingredients, bread, garlic, vinegar or lemon juice, saffron, and maybe mustard. The traditional way to make it involves a mortar and pestle. My rouille recipe involves a food processor or blender.
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All you have to do is blend up a jar of pimento peppers (roasted sweet peppers), with some soaked and squeezed bread, lemon juice, garlic, and a couple of spices. And you will end up with a flavorful garlicky sauce with the most gorgeous deep coral orange color, that is the perfect companion to fish stew or any seafood dish.
Pimento Pepper Rouille: A little bit of magic in sauce form.
Pimento Pepper Rouille Ingredients
- White bread – The bread thickens this sauce and adds a starchiness that almost becomes creamy.
- Pimento peppers – Use the kind that comes in a jar for ease.
- Lemon juice – Brightens up the already acidic peppers with a bit of freshness.
- Minced garlic – A great rouille should be garlicky.
- Paprika – Adds a bit of smokiness.
- Cayenne pepper – A subtle heat in this pepper-forward sauce.
- Kosher salt – A hefty pinch of salt in this sauce will bring out all the other flavors.
Adding Oil to Rouille in the Blender
One thing I love about my blender and food processor is that the top has an opening that allows you to pour the oil into it very slowly while the rouille is blending up and emulsifying. In some cases, there is even a tiny hole in the top section of the feed tube, which allows you to add the oil at once, and then the hole drips in the oil at a very steady and slow pace all on its own. Anyone who has tried following a recipe that says, “drizzle in the olive oil very slowly while whisking” knows this is a great invention.
How to Make Pimento Pepper Rouille
- Soak the bread: Tear up the bread, without the crusts, and add the pieces to a bowl with water. This might be counterintuitive — who wants soggy bread? — but the soak will help the bread blend smoothly into the sauce, balancing out all the flavors.
- Blend: Add all of the ingredients except for the olive oil to a blender. Blend it up until smooth.
- Emulsify: With the blender or food processor still running, slowly stream in the olive oil. The slow continuous addition of oil will make the sauce emulsify, creating a thick and creamy texture. Once you have used all the oil, the sauce is complete!
What to Serve With Pimento Rouille
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Pimento Pepper Rouille
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 slices good white bread (crusts removed)
- 1 can (13.75 ounce) pimento peppers
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- large pinch cayenne pepper (or to taste)
- Kosher salt (to taste)
Instructions
- Rip the bread into large pieces and put them into a bowl. Add water to cover, then pull out the bread quickly and squeeze out the excess water, leaving squishy soaked bread.
- Place the bread in a food processor or blender, and add the pimentos, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, cayenne, and salt. Process until well blended. Add the olive oil in a very thin steady stream, using the insert made for this purpose or just doing it by hand. As the oil gets incorporated, the mixture should emulsify (thicken).
- Scrape the mixture into a bowl.
