Salmorejo

Ingredients

Tomatoes

• 1.5 kgvery ripe tomatoes

Bread

• 250 gstale white bread, crusts removed, ideally telera or a rustic loaf

Also

• 150 mlextra virgin olive oil
• 1 clovegarlic
• 1 tbspsherry vinegar
• 2 tspsalt

To finish

• 3hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 150 gjamón serrano or ibérico, in strips
• more olive oil

To serve

• cold, in shallow bowls

Directions

1. Use very ripe tomatoes, soft and heavy and deeply red. A pale, firm, out-of-season tomato gives a thin, sour salmorejo and there is nothing in the recipe to hide behind.
2. Score a cross in each tomato, blanch them for 30 seconds and slip the skins off. Peel them, always. Tomato skin will not break down in a blender and it leaves unpleasant papery flecks through an otherwise smooth soup.
3. Tear the stale bread into pieces and soak it in a little water for 10 minutes, then squeeze it lightly. The bread must be genuinely stale. Blend the peeled tomatoes with the garlic and salt until completely smooth.
4. Use one clove of garlic and no more. Salmorejo should have a faint garlic background rather than a sharp foreground, and it strengthens as it chills.
5. Add the soaked bread and blend again until very smooth. With the blender running, pour the olive oil in a thin steady stream. Add the oil slowly, exactly as you would for a mayonnaise. Poured in all at once it stays separate and the soup looks oily and thin.
6. Add the vinegar last, a little at a time, and taste. Use very little vinegar. Pass it through a fine sieve if you want it perfectly smooth, pressing it through with a ladle.
7. Taste it again cold and adjust the salt, because cold dulls seasoning noticeably. Serve it in shallow bowls rather than deep ones. Top each bowl with chopped hard-boiled egg and strips of jamón. Pour more good olive oil over each bowl before serving.

Technique

• The proportion of bread to tomato is roughly one to six by weight, which is what makes it thick.
• It keeps two days refrigerated and thickens further.
• Porra antequerana is the closely related and even thicker version from Antequera.

Substitutions

• Any stale white bread with the crusts cut off.
• Good tinned tomatoes out of season, though it is better simply to wait.

Variations

• Porra antequerana, thicker and often with pepper.
• With tuna in place of jamón.
• Made with beetroot or cherry for colour, which is a modern restaurant version.

History

Córdoba’s thicker relative of gazpacho, bound with bread and olive oil; tomatoes made it red only after they spread through Andalusia.

Frequently asked questions

What is Salmorejo?

Salmorejo is a soup & stew from Spain: thick cold tomato-bread cream topped with egg, ham. Córdoba’s thicker relative of gazpacho, bound with bread and olive oil; tomatoes made it red only after they spread through Andalusia.

How long does Salmorejo take to make?

Salmorejo takes 20 min plus 3 hr chilling of preparation and no cooking at all. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Salmorejo?

Yes, within limits. Any stale white bread with the crusts cut off. Good tinned tomatoes out of season, though it is better simply to wait.

What is the most important thing to get right in Salmorejo?

Score a cross in each tomato, blanch them for 30 seconds and slip the skins off. Peel them, always. Tomato skin will not break down in a blender and it leaves unpleasant papery flecks through an otherwise smooth soup.