SALMOREJO

Salmorejo, a long-loved family recipe in Andalusia and a cousin to gazpacho, is slowly winning over outsiders with its creamy but creamless taste.

The cold tomato soup originated in Sumer in Mesopotamia but made its home in Andalusia, as a peasant dish from Cordoba. It combines homegrown tomatoes and day-old white bread with raw garlic, vinegar and olive oil from the region.

Ingredients

½ kilogram breadcrumbs (pan del día anterior)

¾ kilogram ripe red tomatoes

250 milliliters extra-virgin olive oil

10 milliliters vinegar from Montilla (Sherry vineger for me) …

1 garlic clove and salt (dos ó tres)

Jamón Ibérico or jamón serrano

Eggs

Directions

Put the bread in the food processor and layer with chopped tomatoes. Add the raw garlic and olive oil. Blend until the mixture turns creamy and smooth. Add the salt and vinegar, and mix again. Refrigerate at least three hours. Garnish with jamón Ibérico or jamón serrano and slices

José Pizarro; Almuzara

"People who eat it in Andalusia recognize the finesse of salmorejo, which can be present at simple restaurants and, at the same time, be part of the haute cuisine," says Almudena Villegas Becerril, an author and food consultant based in Cordoba, who wrote a history of salmorejo that was published in 2010.

Ms. Villegas Becerril's book, "El Libro del Salmorejo: Historia de un viaje milenario" traces the soup's heritage and its incarnations on the way to Andalusia from the Middle East, before the tomato arrived from the New World sometime around 1500. The author learned how to prepare salmorejo by tasting old recipes, some of which were more than 200 years old.

Spanish celebrity chef Ferran Adrià was among the first to use salmorejo as a finer food.

Now the soup, so thick it could be mistaken for a sauce, has taken a spot on menus abroad. José Andrés introduced the soup to the American palate on television and in his Jaleo restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area.

Even as late as the 1990s, salmorejo was the light way to eat on a budget.

Now, says Luis Carlos Rejón Ruiz, a restaurant owner near Cordoba, "If a prime minister comes to Andalusia, he will taste salmorejo."

Those from the Cordoba area take particular pride in the bright-orange emulsion, the closest thing the city has to a national dish. Salmorejo lovers in Cordoba can even join a salmorejo "cofradía," or a mixed-company "brotherhood" that gets together monthly to cook, taste and talk about salmorejo.

Cristine Bendala, who teaches cooking at Academia Hispánica language school in Cordoba, says salmorejo is the first dish she prepares with students who have come to Cordoba to learn Spanish and sample the culture. "People always like it. It's not too strong on the garlic," she says.

Mr. Rejón Ruiz, who serves salmorejo at his hotel restaurant, Hacienda Minerva says, "The secret of the recipe for salmorejo is that there is no recipe. Everybody learns it from their mother."

He presents the soup at cooking demonstrations for guests at his hotel, a rebuilt private estate nestled in the olive groves about an hour outside of Cordoba.

Part of the pride surrounding salmorejo is associated with the ingredients and the fact that Andalusia produces some of the best of each individual ingredient, such as D.O. Baena extra-virgin olive oil, vinegar from D.O. Montilla-Moriles wine and jamón serrano, which is used as a garnish and made from white pigs farmed in Andalusia.

And there is something about its ice-cold temperature that just makes salmorejo a good fit with the sun-scorched region.

"Salmorejo tastes Mediterranean. It tastes like summer," says Mr. Rejón Ruiz.

Salmorejo is typically served as a soup or starting dip. It is often accompanied by fried eggplants or a potato omelet, and goes well with a glass of fine sherry. The salinity of the wine provides freshness in the mouth.

Sillero Francisca Serrano, a 78-year-old resident of Baena, the olive-oil-producing village outside Cordoba, was given her salmorejo recipe from her grandmother and in turn, has passed it down to her own grandchildren. Ms. Serrano says she peels her tomatoes before processing and serves her salmorejo as a dip. She stresses that the local extra-virgin olive oil makes the difference.

Others say that ripe red tomatoes are the key ingredient.

Spanish chef José Pizarro, who co-founded the Brindisa Tapas Kitchens group in London, made his first salmorejo as a boy using tomatoes grown in his own garden. He learned his recipe from his uncle, Angel, from Cadiz and now serves salmorejo at his restaurants José and Pizarro on Bermondsey Street in London.

Indeed, now that salmorejo has gained a following outside of Andalusia, some restaurants serve it year round, a fact that irritates purists because it means cooks may

have to use hothouse tomatoes. To get around the problem of tomatoes that aren't ripened in the sun, one chef in Cadiz roasts his tomatoes to access a deeper flavor. Cordoba locals have even been known to use canned tomatoes in deep winter.

"I don't agree with serving salmorejo year round, but I still make it at cooking shows for guests from abroad," says Mr. Rejón Ruiz. "The trick," he adds, "is the ripeness of the tomatoes. They cannot be grown in a hothouse."

An Andalusian Tradition

Recipes for salmorejo can vary and may include red pepper, onion or lemon. Almudena Villegas Becerril, the author of "El Libro del Salmorejo: Historia de un viaje milenario," provided this recipe.

Spanish salmorejo

WHEN THE QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL at the Southbank Centre in London put on a series of concerts called "Words and Music," they invited me to join a Spanish flamenco player and a lute player from Baghdad in an event they advertised as "A Night in Andalusia" and to speak between their pieces about my gastronomic experiences in Andalusia.

I talked about Ziryab, a lute player from Baghdad who fled from the court of Harun al-Rashid in the ninth century and joined the court of Córdoba and is credited for introducing new music and new dishes to Spain. I described the dishes I discovered, giving the recipe for a salmorejo that was served at a flamenco festival in Córdoba, and which I also found in every bar and tavern in that city. At the end of the concert, a middle-aged woman came to tell me that she had been moved to tears on hearing the recipe. She was from the province of Córdoba and had lived in Britain for many years.

Salmorejo has become one of my favorite summer foods. It is a refreshing cold tomato soup, more filling than gazpacho, with more bread, and extremely tasty even when the

tomatoes are of indifferent flavor, because of the extra-virgin olive oil, vinegar, garlic and seasonings. It was born as the simple meal Andalusian agricultural laborers made for themselves when they worked in the vegetable gardens. They brought with them a dornillo (pestle and mortar) to pound the tomatoes that grew on the spot, some olive oil, salt and vinegar to dress them, and some bread. It fills me with joy every time I make it because it brings back memories of Córdoba.

“They say that with gastronomy, as with music, you can touch people and make them cry.”

Andoni Luis Aduriz, the brilliant young chef at Mugaritz in the Basque Country whose cuisine has been described as techno-emotional, told me that although he uses science and technology to create his dishes, he wants them to evoke memories and provoke emotions. "Memories and emotions" is the new mantra of innovative chefs.

I don't peel the tomatoes; in the food processor, the skin all but disappears. I vary the toppings. The Córdoba version is chopped hard-boiled eggs and jamón. In Antequera and the area south of Córdoba, where they call it porra, they add bits of tinned tuna. I sometimes add chopped cornichons, capers or chopped olives.

I went in search of those memories and emotions that dishes evoke in Spaniards, and on the way discovered what they meant to me. It is surprising how dishes can appeal directly to the emotions. They say that with gastronomy, as with music, you can touch people and make them cry. When I cook at home in London, it is the people who gave me recipes and those with whom I shared meals that I think of. It is images of the flamenco concert in Córdoba, the convent where I stayed in Seville, and the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela that I conjure up. They represent an old civilization with a fabulous cuisine—delicious and exciting.

I mustn't forget that the story of gazpacho is also the story of the tomatoes that came from the New World. They were first cultivated in Seville, in the early 16th century, but extensive use of the tomato only began in the 19th century.

—Ms. Roden is a London-based cookbook author and president of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

SALMOREJO CORDOBÉS CON HUEVOS Y JAMÓN

Cold tomato soup with chopped hard-boiled eggs and ham

SERVES: 4 | PREP TIME: 25 minutes | TOTAL TIME: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

150-175g white bread without crusts, preferably day-old (el pan se puede remojar con agua y sal)

750g tomatoes 2-4 garlic cloves, crushed 100mL extra-virgin olive oil 1½-2 tablespoons red or white-wine vinegar Limón Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the garnish

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped 100-120g jamón serrano, chopped

Porra: o Chopped Tunao Pickleso Caperso Oliveso Jalapeños

How to prepare

1. Put the bread in the food processor and turn it into fine crumbs. Then pour these into a serving bowl.

2. Cut the tomatoes, unpeeled, into quarters and remove the hard white bits at the stem end. Blend in the food processor until the peel shows only as tiny specks of red in the pink cream. Add the rest of the ingredients, tasting to decide how much garlic and vinegar you want, and blend well. Then add the breadcrumbs and mix well.

3. Serve in bowls garnished with a sprinkling of the olive oil and the chopped eggs and ham.

Variation

For a porra that was the mainstay of the peasantry of Antequera, blend 500g of bread soaked in water with 500g tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 4-5 crushed garlic cloves, 175mL

extra-virgin olive oil, and salt and vinegar to taste. Garnish with chopped egg, jamón and flaked tuna bits. The Córdoba version is chopped hard-boiled eggs and jamón. In Antequera and the area south of Córdoba, where they call it porra, they add bits of tinned tuna. I sometimes add chopped cornichons (pickles), capers or chopped olives.

En Español

Ingredientes:

1 k y medio de tomates muy maduros. 2 dientes de ajo. pan duro. aceite de oliva, vinagre y sal.

Para la guarnición:

Huevo duro. Patatas fritas. Pimiento. Cebolla. Jamón serrano. Jalapeños Atún

Pelamos troceamos y trituramos los tomates junto con el ajo. Ponemos en la macetilla y añadimos el pan duro a trozos pequeños. Dejamos reposar unas horas, que el pan se empape con el tomate y se quede blando. Hay quien añade agua, pienso que es un sacrilegio, basta con el jugo de tomate.Trituramos tos muy fino con la batidora y añadimos el aceite, vinagre y la sal. Ponemos a enfriar y servimos.El acompañamiento es libre, huevo duro, atún, pimiento, jamón, patatas fritas. Alguna vez lo hemos comido acompañado de Yuca frita y la combinación es muy buena, la unión de las culturas nos enriquece.

Me dice un amigo nativo de la ciudad de Córdoba que el maridaje salmorejo-berenjenas se lo moderno y no tanto una tradición. Pero nadie me negará que los dos platos estaban abocados a entenderse. Esta especie de gazpacho que originariamente se hacía sin tomate (es decir sólo con pan, aceite y ajo como una especie de alioli andaluz) necesita de un soporte para ser llevada a la boca y la berenjena con su sabor amargo nos hace un servicio excelente.

Ingredientes

Para el salmorejo

1 kg. de tomates

100 gr de aceite de oliva

1/2 barra de pan duro

1 diente de ajo

sal, cominos, y orégano (en cuanto a las especies puedes experimentar a tu gusto)

Ketchup (opcional)

Para las berenjenas

1 berenjena (elección-la bien dura / verde)

250 gr de aceite de oliva virgen

harina (mejor para freír como la de pescado que lleva también harina de garbanzos)

sal

Elaboración

Primero preparamos el salmorejo. Elegimos unas buenas tomates (los de pera van de categoría), si tienes un buen robot de cocina (thermomix) no vale la pena ni pelarlos.

Metemos tomates, pan con una xorradeta de vinagre, el diente de ajo, las especias y lo batimos todo hasta que quede con una textura cremosa, al menos 5 minutos (antes se dejaba mas grumoso, pero hoy en día es la tendencia de la moda cordobesa hacerlo así).

El último minuto añades el aceite de oliva (así el resultado final será más rojo que si lo pones al principio). Algunos Recomendamos añadir también una xorradeta de ketchup.

Yo siempre lo hago ...

Si lo ves conveniente pasas todo el conjunto por un colador.

Para las berenjenas,

1) las tallas con forma de cuchara o bien, según el gusto, como si fueran patatas panaderas2) Las mantienes en remojo con agua y buena cosa de sal al menos 30 minutos

3) las Seque después con papel de cocina.

4) las rebozado con una fina capita de harina (yo lo hago con un colador)

5) las Frigo hasta que quedan tiesas pero no quemadas

Menjate-las rápido enseguida, o té se harán migas!