Recipe: Nico’s Sauce – Sun Dried Tomato & Anchovy Dipping Sauce
Last week, I shared some fun highlights from my recent coastal California road trip that I took with none other than my momma. Today, you get the pleasure of learning how to make the very best dish I had on the trip: Nico’s sauce.
Actually, I take that back. I can’t make Nico’s sauce the way he does. And, honestly, neither can you. No one can. But damnit, we will try!
Ingredients: dry sun-dried tomatoes, fresh garlic, fresh rosemary, extra-virgin olive oil, any dry white wine (plus a swig for the chef), pepper, crushed red pepper, coarse sea salt, and anchovy filets
Let’s rewind a little. On our evening in Carmel, mom and I opted for a healthy splurge and had dinner at a little Mediterranean restaurant called Nico. We were greeted by the bubbliest, Italianest host you could imagine, and were seated right away. Our (incredibly handsome) server introduced himself and placed a small ramekin of red sauce and some fresh bread in front of us. I think back at that moment, before I’d taken a bite of that fateful sauce, and recall how innocently I looked at the bowl. “Oh,” I must have thought, “look, a simple tomato dip for our bread before the meal comes. How quaint.” That opinion changed when I took my first bite.
You beautiful beast, you.
Reader, I simply cannot describe how delicious this sauce was. I struggled to place its flavors at first. It was… olive-y? Fishy? Tomato-y, yet briney? Finally, I figured it out: they’d married sun-dried tomato with anchovy and it came together into this tangy sauce that I simply could. not. put. down. To make matters worse (better?), they had the freshest, softest bread served with it. Apparently the baker sings to the dough as he’s kneading it. That’s how you know it’s good.
It was bizarre to experience this thrill of flavors before even putting in an order for dinner. I was visibly bewildered that the restaurant would just give this stuff away as the free, pre-meal bread accompaniment. Our server caught on to my gushing and a�� as if he were secretly offering me something illicit a�� whispered that I could buy a whole jar of the stuff for just $9. Yes, you handsome devil, yes, I WILL buy a jar!
The rest of the meal was wonderful. At the end of the evening, the restaurant’s namesake swung by our table to see how we enjoyed ourselves. Mom was delightful, Nico was charming, but me? All I had on my mind was the friggin’ sauce. I told Nico how taken I was with it, and he went on to list out the ingredients and his basic process for making it a�� which I obnoxiously scrawled on to the back of the meal’s receipt.
So, ladies and gentlemen, today I present you with my attempt at making Nico’s famous sauce. Sadly, mine didn’t end up tasting exactly like his, but it’s still an incredible dip to serve at any party.
Nico’s is on the left, mine is on the right. I believe his changed color over time in my fridge.
Nico’s method involves first infusing your olive oil with garlic and rosemary, which I’m all about. After that, you spend a bit of time essentially steeping the dry sun-dried tomatoes in the oil. Once those time-consuming steps are done, just blend and serve! Easy, right? The only issue… I have no idea what the quantities should be, since we had a pretty casual table-side conversation about it all. So I had to proceed with logic!
My other hiccup was that my anchovy filets were… blah. I got my tin from Trader Joe’s, but I’d recommend something more authentic for next time, perhaps from Sorrento’s or your equivalent euro-market. I have an inkling that what made Nico’s sauce so special is some magical, specially ordered anchovies that he has flown in from the Mediterranean and hand delivered and blessed by a real, live Italian nonna and/or Greek yaya.
Making this dipping sauce is a fun experiment and you’re guaranteed to end up with something delectable to spread onto bread (or OMG a sandwich!), so everybody wins. Next time, it’d be fun to try it out with green or kalamata olives, or use anchovy paste rather than filets, or even toss in some roasted red peppers for a totally different flavor.
Big thanks to Nico and his crew for a delightful evening in Carmel! Go try out the sauce in action (and the rest of the menu, duh) next time you find yourself in Carmel:
Nico Restaurant
San Carlos St. & Ocean Ave. Carmel, CA 93921
nicorestaurant.com
- Dry sun-dried tomatoes (not the kind that have been soaking in oil!)
- Fresh garlic
- Fresh rosemary
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Dry white wine
- Anchovies
- Crushed pepper flakes
- Salt & pepper
- Baguette, for serving
- Prepare all ingredients with clean hands and a clean working area*
- Wash and thoroughly dry rosemary (make sure there are NO water droplets left! You may need to let the rosemary sit out to dry for an hour)
- Peel and smash garlic (4 cloves)
- Add rosemary & garlic to a mason jar full of olive oil
- Leave olive oil at room temperature to infuse with garlic and rosemary for 24 hours
- Move olive oil to fridge to continue infusing for 2-3 more days
- Remove and discard garlic and rosemary from infused olive oil**
- In a separate container, cover the sun-dried tomatoes with the infused olive oil
- Let the tomatoes sit in the oil for about two days
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes with its infused olive oil into a food processor
- Add 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic
- Add 1-2 anchovy filets
- Add a splash of white wine, a pinch of crushed pepper flakes, and season with salt & pepper
- If necessary, add more extra-virgin olive oil
- Blend ingredients in food processor, stop to taste
- Continue adding (and ceasing the addition of) various ingredients until you have the consistency of an oil-based dip with a tangy and garlic-y flavor
- The sauce is ready when you're happy with how it tastes!
- Serve in a small bowl alongside fresh bread
- Remember, the quantity of each ingredient in this recipe is a mystery! I suggest adding each item little by little and tasting along the way until you find a harmony of flavors.
- *Infusing oils can be a breeding ground for bacteria, but if you maintain a clean space, are aware of potential cross-contamination, and keep infusion time to under a week in the fridge, you'll be fine.
- **Feel free to use this garlic and rosemary for something else within a day or so, like for roasting a chicken or blending into a salad dressing!
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