Salmorejo is gazpacho's thicker cousin from Spain's Córdoba region. I learned to make it from Carles Benavent, one of the world's most brilliant bass players. He taught me everything I know about playing the bass. Carles is from Catalonia but his ties to flamenco are so deep that we flamenco worshippers (some of us are also Regina Spektor worshippers)have made Carles an honorary Andalusian gipsy. ¡A disfrutar el salmorejo!

500 g very ripe, very red tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
1 soup spoon vinegar
4 soup spoons of virgen olive oil
salt
2 hard boiled eggs and some chopped up jamón 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

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. You can use a peeler or cut the bread into thick slices and then cut off the crust use a large heavy knife.

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.

seems pretty easy and tasty. <3 tomatoes.

that really sounds really really good!

My mom makes this... and it is so wonderful. <3