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My first kitchen job involved making six gallons of gazpacho every Sunday. This was back when earning your chops meant something, and making that whole batch with just a knife and peeler, no blender, was the most tedious task on my list. It was also the most popular dish on the menu. By the time I’d learned that recipe—straight out of the Moosewood Cookbook—by heart, I figured I knew everything there was to know about cold Spanish soups.
When I finally made it to Spain, reality set in on many levels. Sangria, it turns out, is just for tourists, while the locals drink a mix of red wine and Sprite called tinto de verano.
Spanish gazpacho, meanwhile, is a lot smoother than my chunky hippy version. And because it’s so involved to make, with an entire garden’s worth of vegetables to prepare, gazpacho is often reserved for special occasions, like Sundays or when company comes over.
But when the average Spaniard on the street wants to whip up a quick cold soup at home, or have a chilled bowl at the local bar, it’s much more likely to be salmorejo.
Made with just tomatoes, garlic, oil, vinegar, salt, and bread crumbs, a much pared-down cast compared to gazpacho, in salmorejo we are free to focus all of our attention on the tomato.
It has a creamy red look, and a body that jiggles like sea foam thanks to the emulsion between tomato, oil, and vinegar, thickened by the tomato-soaked bread. Some recipes call for the “guts” of a baguette; I’ve also had good luck cutting the edges off a slice of bread—usually white, but whole grain bread adds a fun heartiness once in a while.
High-acid, normal-looking red tomatoes are traditionally used, but some of my best batches have been mutts—medleys of whatever heirlooms, slicers, cherry, and paste tomatoes are getting too soft for salad.
A Taste of Normalcy
I was in Spain when the pandemic hit. On the last afternoon before the lockdown, it didn’t quite seem real. In Lanjarón, a cute mountain village in Andalusia, it was business and leisure as usual. As my kids enjoyed a playground that would be roped off for months the very next morning, I ducked into a cafe just ahead of a tour bus from Madrid, and ordered a bowl of salmorejo. It came out immediately, garnished with chopped hard-boiled egg and jamón, Spanish cured ham.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but that typical bowl of everyday salmorejo would be my last taste of normalcy for months, not to mention my last restaurant meal. Cooped up in our rented house during the lockdown, I began to understand the wisdom of keeping a pitcher of salmorejo in the fridge. It was as much an act of preparation for the inevitable heat of the day as a response to the ever-accumulating soft tomatoes and stale bread, one problem solving another.
Here is a boilerplate salmorejo recipe. Tweak it to suit your own whims and tastes—but only adjust the levels of the called-for ingredients. If you start adding things, you’ll have bready gazpacho in no time.
Salmorejo
A simple soup from a simpler time.
Serves 4
- 2 pounds tomatoes
- 1/2 cup bread guts (roughly a slice of bread with the crust cut off)
- 1 modest-sized clove of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (more to taste if your tomatoes are low-acid)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Garnish: hard-boiled egg, chopped ham, olive oil, parsley, chives
Boil a pot of salted water deep enough to submerge your tomatoes.
While the water heats, cut a cross into the bottom of each tomato to slice the skins. Then gut the bread, which is a lot less messy than gutting a fish or a deer. Prepare an ice bath and set aside.
Boil the tomatoes in the water for about two minutes, then immediately plunge them into the ice bath until they are completely cool. Remove the tomatoes and pull off the skins. If you want to go the extra mile, cut open the tomatoes and remove the seeds. (And if you want to slack, you can skip peeling the tomatoes.)
Liquify the tomatoes in a blender for about 30 seconds. Add the bread and liquify again. Let the blended bread sit for about five minutes in the blended tomatoes.
Add the garlic, salt, vinegar, and oil. Blend on high for a minute. Check seasonings and blend again if you made any adjustments.
Chill. Garnish with chopped hard-boiled egg and jamón if you want to be traditional. More casually, a simple splash of olive oil or sprinkle of fresh parsley will complete the dish.
Ari LeVaux writes about food in Missoula, Mont.
Focus News: Salmorejo: A Simple Antidote for a Hot Spanish Summer