Salmorejo recipe
Southern Spain's fresh tomato soup, made with bread, to enjoy cold.
Prep time: 20 minutes, plus 2 hours chilling | Cooking time: 5 minutes
SERVES
Four to six
INGREDIENTS
900g really well-flavoured tomatoes
2 small to medium garlic cloves, grated to a purée
125ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tbsp
3 slices crustless coarse country bread (about 75g, weighed without crusts)
1 tsp sherry vinegar (you can add more but this is enough for me)
To serve
4 slices of serrano ham, torn into strips
3 medium hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil
METHOD
Bring a pan of water to the boil then reduce it to a simmer.
Make a cross with a small knife on the bottom of each tomato and, in batches, drop them into the water for about a minute. Remove with a slotted spoon, leave to cool a little then peel off the skin. Quarter the tomatoes, then scrape out the seeds and juice into a nylon sieve set over a bowl. Put the tomato flesh in another bowl. Press the seeds with the back of a spoon to get more juice out of them. Put this in a blender with the tomato flesh and garlic.
Heat the 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the bread on both sides until it’s pale gold (it should not colour too much) and has sucked up the oil. Add this to the blender too. Purée until smooth. Pour in the remaining extra-virgin olive oil and the vinegar, along with some salt and pepper. Whizz again. You should now have a thick, smooth mixture. Check the seasoning (you may want to add a bit more sherry vinegar).
Pour the soup into a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve in bowls garnished with strips of serrano ham, chopped hard-boiled egg and a good slug of extra-virgin olive oil.
