Salmorejo Recipe

Name: Salmorejo
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 3 h 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: 1 kg very ripe tomatoes, quartered; 200 g stale white bread, crusts removed; 150 ml good extra virgin olive oil; 1 small garlic clove; 1 tbsp sherry vinegar; 2 tsp fine sea salt; 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; 100 g jamón serrano, torn; A final drizzle of olive oil

Salmorejo

Córdoba's thicker, richer answer to gazpacho: tomatoes, bread, garlic and a great deal of olive oil blended into a smooth orange cream, served cold under chopped egg and jamón.

15 min prep and cooking plus 3 hr 20 min chilling 3 hr 35 min start to finish Serves 4 servings Easy

The olive oil is emulsified into the tomato and bread while the blender runs, exactly as in a mayonnaise, which is what turns the mixture pale orange and gives it that dense, creamy body. Soaking stale bread rather than using fresh gives structure without gumminess, since the starch has already retrograded.

Questions About Salmorejo

How long does Salmorejo take to make?

15 minutes of preparation and of cooking, plus 3 hours 20 minutes of chilling, so allow 3 hours 35 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.

Salmorejo, in preparation
Photograph credit: A plate of four open-faced sandwiches on a white napkin. Each sandwich has a thick layer… by Nilo Velez · CC0 1.0 · Wordpress

Salmorejo: Step by Step

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Blend the tomatoes alone until completely liquid, about 2 minutes.
Pass the purée through a sieve to remove all skin and seeds. This step is what makes salmorejo velvety rather than pulpy.
Tear the bread into the strained tomato and leave it to soak for 20 minutes until completely soft.
Blend the soaked bread and tomato with the garlic and salt until smooth.
With the motor running on medium, pour in the olive oil in a thin, steady stream.
The mixture will visibly thicken and turn from red to a pale coral orange as the oil emulsifies.
Add the sherry vinegar and blend for 10 seconds more.
Taste and adjust for salt and acidity, then chill at least 3 hours until properly cold.
Serve in shallow bowls topped with chopped egg, torn jamón (optional) and a final drizzle of olive oil.

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A Few Pointers

One small garlic clove is enough. Raw garlic dominates a cold soup very quickly.
Sieve the tomatoes. It takes five minutes and transforms the texture.
The colour tells you whether the emulsion has worked — pale orange is right, red means the oil has not gone in.

If You're Missing Something

An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Serve It With

A cold fino or manzanilla sherry · Fried aubergine with honey · Crusty bread

Storage

Refrigerate up to 3 days. It thickens as it sits; loosen with a splash of iced water. Do not freeze.

Salmorejo Nutrition

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

Vegetarian option

Vegetarian when served without the jamón serrano.

Salmorejo

Questions About Salmorejo

Salmorejo: Step by Step

A Few Pointers

If You're Missing Something

Serve It With

Storage

Salmorejo Nutrition

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

Questions About Salmorejo

Salmorejo: Step by Step

A Few Pointers

If You're Missing Something

Serve It With

Storage

Salmorejo Nutrition

Your notes on this recipe

Cooked this? Keep a note for next time

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