Salmorejo
Salmorejo is often confused with gazpacho, but it is a different dish and a different technique. Gazpacho is thin and contains cucumber, pepper and onion; salmorejo has only four main ingredients and is thick enough for a spoon to stand in it. That comes from a generous amount of bread and from an emulsion of olive oil — poured in a thin stream into a running blender, which shifts the colour from red to salmon.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking the bread 20 min
- Blending 10 min
- Chilling 120 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBlend the tomatoes alone and strain
Blitz the tomatoes smooth and pass them through a sieve, pressing. The skins and seeds stay behind — no domestic blender breaks them down, and they are what makes salmorejo grainy instead of velvet. Five minutes that show in the finished bowl.
Ingredients: 1000 g tomatoes · 200 g stale bread · 120 ml olive oil · 1 clove garlic · 1 tbsp sherry vinegar · 1 tsp salt
Soak the bread in the pulp for 20 minutes
Tear the crustless stale bread into the tomato pulp and leave for 20 minutes, until it is fully saturated and collapses between your fingers. Stale, not fresh — fresh bread turns to glue and will not emulsify evenly.
Ingredients: 1000 g tomatoes · 200 g stale bread · 120 ml olive oil · 1 clove garlic · 1 tbsp sherry vinegar · 1 tsp salt
The bread should collapse, not float in pieces.Blend with garlic and salt
Add the garlic, salt and vinegar and blend for 3 minutes at high speed. The long blending has a purpose: the mixture turns perfectly smooth, and the broken-down bread will bind the oil into an emulsion more readily. Briefly blended salmorejo is lumpy and separates more easily.
Ingredients: 1000 g tomatoes · 200 g stale bread · 120 ml olive oil · 1 clove garlic · 1 tbsp sherry vinegar · 1 tsp salt
Pour the oil in a thin stream
With the blender running, add the oil in a very thin stream over a full minute. The mixture thickens and shifts from red to salmon pink — the visible sign that the emulsion has taken. Oil added all at once floats to the top.
Ingredients: 1000 g tomatoes · 200 g stale bread · 120 ml olive oil · 1 clove garlic · 1 tbsp sherry vinegar · 1 tsp salt
The colour lightens from red to salmon — emulsion done.Chill two hours and season again
Refrigerate for 2 hours. Taste before serving and almost certainly add more salt and vinegar — cold blunts perception, and chilled salmorejo needs noticeably more salt than the same soup at room temperature.
Ingredients: 1000 g tomatoes · 200 g stale bread · 120 ml olive oil · 1 clove garlic · 1 tbsp sherry vinegar · 1 tsp salt
The spoon stands — that is the thickness to aim for.Serve with ham, egg and oil
Ladle into shallow bowls, scatter with diced ham and chopped egg and pour over raw olive oil. The garnishes are not optional — the salt from the ham and the fat from the yolk complete a very plain soup.
Ingredients: 100 g serrano ham · 2 pcs eggs · 2 tbsp olive oil
Before you start
The tomatoes decide everything
In a four-ingredient soup there is nowhere to hide. Winter tomatoes give a pale, sour salmorejo — out of season, make something else, or add a spoonful of tomato paste and a pinch of sugar.
Sherry vinegar
Andalusian sherry vinegar has a nutty depth that other vinegars lack. Substitute red wine vinegar with a few drops of lemon juice. Do not use spirit vinegar — it brings sharpness and nothing else.
Adjusting the thickness
Classic salmorejo is eaten with a spoon and bread can be dipped in it. Reduce the bread to 120 g for a drinkable version — but reduce the oil too, since a thinner mixture holds an emulsion less well.
