Salmorejo |
Summer
Submitted by Nia on Mon, 2007-08-06 1:5301:53:25 AM.
Don't let the silly name discourage you and call it concentrated gazpacho if you wish.
Ingredients for two big bowls:
Day-old bread: the harder the better. At least two slices, of a fist-shaped chunk. The more you use the thicker the soup will be.
One small green pepper.
Two pounds of very ripe tomatoes.
One (small!!) clove of garlic.
Salt.
good quality olive oil -as much as you dare, at least 2 tbsps, but I've adapted this form a recipe that needed 2/3 of a cup!
2 tbsp. Vinegar.
****
Garnish:
cucumber cubes,
croutons,
or hard-boiled eggs, chopped.
Soak up the bread in water for a few minutes. In the meantime, prepare the vegetables: cut the tops off the tomatoes (I don't peel them, though you could), cut in big chunks, remove the seeds of the pepper.
Take the bread and squeeze on the sinnk to remove most of the water. Put in a blender with the pepper, the clove, and a bit of salt. Blend well until it becomes a disgusting-looking grey mush.
Add the tomatoes and blend again. I don't sieve this because I don't mind the skins, which are barely noticeable anyway.
Add the vinegar. Stir. Don't blend.
Add the olive oil. Stir, don't blend.
Serve.
To turn this into gazpacho, you'll just have to add approximately two cups of water. How much exactly depends on the type of tomato and of bread. I haven't had two homemade salmorejos that were the same (pinker, redder, thicker, saltier), and this is even more so when the tomatoes are organic.