We fell in love with salmorejo (sal·maw·ray·yow) when we were in Madrid recently. It was just some light orange soup, until you took a sip and then all you wanted was more, more, more. Since it features tomatoes and there are only a few ingredients, we needed to wait until the French tomatoes caught up with their Spanish siblings. Like gazpacho, this requires a blender–a food processor won’t get it fine enough and you’ll end up frustrated. Makes about a quart:
Salmorejo
- 4 ounces white bread, torn into thumb-sized pieces (crusts are fine)
- 1 pound ripe tomatoes (use good ones here)
- 1 small clove garlic (more to taste)
- Salt
- 1/3 cup good olive oil
- Dash of sherry vinegar (optional)
Put the bread in a bowl and sprinkle some water over it. Toss with your hands to get it nice and damp. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until the bread has absorbed the water and is soft.
While the bread is soaking, core and roughly cut the tomatoes, add to the blender with the garlic and salt. Give it a quick blend until everything is combined. Add the bread and blend until smooth. You’ll probably need to add some more water—you’re looking for a smoothy-like texture.
With the blender running (on a high speed), slowly pour in the olive oil. The salmorejo will turn from red (depending on the color of the tomatoes) to orange. Taste and add more salt and the sherry vinegar if using. Chill and enjoy!
My verdict:
Great! This is going to give gazpacho competition. Since the salmorejo has so few ingredients, you need to use the best tomatoes, bread and olive oil you have or can get. But on that note, it’s a great use for slightly stale bread.
I started out with a small garlic clove and ended up adding another slightly bigger one. Taste and see what your garlic tolerance is. Frank asked about adding some heat, like a little jalapeno, but I resisted.
The Spanish serve this topped with chopped hard-boiled egg, or some bits of cured ham. No matter what, finish with a drizzle of good olive oil.
I used to make my gazpacho chunky, but switched to the smooth one once I had it at a chef’s lunch. Mixing the two is a great idea!
We love gazpacho but I usually make it chunky and we really like tomato soup but this was not. a Fav and we agreed with your husband need some umph jalapeño was not a bad idea. I added Italian spices which helped and my husband added hot sauce. Ultimately we weren’t thrilled and yes the tomatoes were good organic flavorful. That being said I did add the extra garrrrlic 😉 Next day made my chunky gazpacho and added this soup and it was delicious. Thanks and hope you’re staying cool and hydrated.