Fresh garlic really is something else, and made me realize how dessicated the stuff we normally store on the counter really is when we bring it home. Where peeling garlic for me is usually somewhat of a smash and slide operation, peeling the fresh stuff I brought home from the market last week was closer to a delicate undressing. Sexy, almost, and very tender.

Wow.

In any case, starving, craving something healthy, and lacking much else in the way of fresh vegetables, I tried Anya von Bremzen’s rendition of Castilian garlic soup, which is insanely easy, really:

Chop up some prosciutto or serrano, slice 6 cloves of garlic, and chop 4. Cut up a hunk of country bread into large cubes. (I was lucky to have the some leftover ciabatta I made last weekend. More on that later, perhaps.)

Sweat the sliced garlic and ham in some very nice olive oil for about 7 minutes until it smells wonderful, then add your bread, stirring to coat with all the now even more delicious oil. Off heat, toss the whole mixture with 2 teaspoons of sweet pimentón, then return to the heat and add 5 cups of stock.

Simmer for a few minutes, then add the chopped garlic and simmer one minute more.

To serve, you add a poached egg. Since I made the full batch of soup, and am eating that sucker alone (probably not all in one sitting), I poached the eggs right in the soup. A little salt and pepper, a glass of wine, you’re good to go.

Now my house smells fantastic, and I’m warm, cozy, and well fed. Can’t beat that at the end of a long, long weekend.

(See Anya von Bremzen’s The New Spanish Table for the recipe.)

No, I haven’t been eating only nachos and whiskey for the last few months, but it’s been a weird food time. I did apparently trim an inch off my waist, which is nice, except that now I need new pants.

But anyway, tonight is all about: romesco.

If you’ve never had it, I’m sorry, but we can rectify that soon. If you have, your idea of righteous romesco may vary a bit from mine (every recipe is a bit different), but you know it’s a Catalan sauce made from nuts, tomatoes, peppers, bread, garlic, and vinegar that’s delicious on…well, on just about everything: vegetables, shrimp, chicken, grilled bread, fish, name it.

It’s actually good for you, too! Small amounts of healthy nuts, extra virgin olive oil, no cheese, no other fats, and so satisfying.

I love it as a dipping sauce for poached shrimp. The Spanish, though, have a neat ritual of charring green onions on the grill, then dipping them with their fingers into warm bowls of the stuff, and that’s what I decided to go for tonight. Finger food.

I didn’t have spring onions, but I did have some fat, beautiful leeks. Tip: When you’re going to grill an onion of any sort, it helps to keep the root end intact, so they don’t fall apart. I just trimmed off some of the long roots and the woody green leaves, then sliced the leeks lengthwise in quarters and washed them in a big bowl of cold water (plunging them up and down helps divest leeks of their mud).

A quick coating of extra virgin olive oil, and they were ready for the grill pan, which I used to char the hell out of them. Yum.

The sauce is the key, and what you add to yours will depend a bit on taste and a bit on the state of your pantry. Mine went something like this:

• handful of toasted, skinned hazelnuts
• small handful of toasted almonds (you can use on nut or the other, but I happened to have both on hand)
• one beautiful tomato
• a couple of small slices of toasted ciabatta
• 2 jarred piquillo peppers
• one ancho chile, softened in some hot water
• sherry vinegar

Basically, blend it all up in the food processor, add some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and you’re done. It’s not a clingy dip — more of a dolloping sauce. The texture will be thick and a little nubby, not smooth like a mayonnaise (though now that I think of it, I bet it’d be really good in mayonnaise), the color a rich, rich mahogany. The sauce should have a little kick to it, but in my experience, anyway, it shouldn’t be spicy.

My lovely dinner, then: two slices of that same ciabatta, rubbed with some olive oil and grilled; a tangled pile of charred leek wedges; and a heaping spoonful of romesco. OK, several heaping spoonfuls.

Trust me, you’ll be rummaging through your fridge looking for things to slather with your sauce. Tomorrow I’m doing asparagus.