Salmorejo is a typical dish from Cordoba. We first experienced it when we were in Cordoba with a group of friends from Madrid. As we tried it we all said the same -“It’s like gazpacho only thicker”. This does not actually do it justice as it is much better than gazpacho in my opinion and many people who do not like gazpacho do like this dish. It is more of a dip than a soup and in Cordoba is generally eaten by dipping bread or dry bread sticks in it. You can also use a spoon.

The following are roughly the ingredients but you may want to experiment a bit as you may like the Salmorejo thick as I do or you may prefer it a bit thinner. If you prefer it thinner than you need to add less bread or perhaps a little water. Be very careful with the quantity of garlic you use as it can be a bit overpowering.

Ingredients

• 500 g very ripe, very red tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 4 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
• salt
• 2 hard boiled eggs and some chopped up jamon serrano to put on top
• salt
• 1 stale spanish/french stick bread (the quantity of bread may vary) – By stale bread I mean that it should be very dry (but not mouldy)
• fresh stick bread or sliced bread to dip in the Salmorejo once it is finished

You also need a food blender

Preparation

The first thing to do is take the crust off the bread. I use a Spanish stick bread but if you can’t get anything like this you could use stale sliced bread. I’m not sure what quantity of this you would need (the staler the bread the less you need). If you are using a stick bread getting the crust off can be quite messy. You can use a peeler or cut the bread into thick slices and then cut off the crust use a large heavy knife.

The tomatoes should be peeled but as our friend Santi from Cordoba said “if she had to peel the tomatoes she would never make Salmorejo”. Since she is the first person I saw make Salmorejo I decided to follow her example as peeling tomatoes is a pain!!

Chop the tomatoes up and put them in the food blender with the oil, vinegar, garlic and a little salt (you can also add the egg yolks from the hard boiled eggs at this stage if you want to). Blend this all together and then start to add the stale bread bit by bit. The mixture will very quickly become thicker and as you add the bread it will take longer for it to mix through. When no more bread will mix through it the Salmorejo is ready. You may not need to add all the bread or you may need a bit more.

Pour the Salmorejo into a bowl and chill it in the fridge.

Just before serving garnish with chopped up egg white and jamon serrano if you can find it.

HINT: I tend to hold back one tomato so that when the last bit of bread doesn’t mix through I can add the tomato which lets the bread blend in.