Spain·Andalusia·Córdoba
Salmorejo
Cordoban cold tomato and bread cream
A cold cream from Córdoba made of tomato, bread, olive oil and garlic, topped with ham and hard-boiled egg.
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cooking
- 0 min
- Total time
- 1 h 20 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Servings
- 4
Chilling: 1 h
Ingredients
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Preparation
Tips
- Use a compact-crumbed bread that is a day old: if it is very soft, the cream will turn watery.
- Salmorejo is thicker than gazpacho; if it comes out too dense, loosen it with a spoonful of cold water.
- Add the oil slowly so it emulsifies and the cream is silky.
- The tomatoes must be very ripe: almost all the flavour depends on them.
Variations
- The traditional Cordoban recipe contains no vinegar, although some versions add a splash.
- It is served with serrano ham and chopped hard-boiled egg.
- Very different dishes go by the same name elsewhere: in the Canary Islands, rabbit in salmorejo, and in Aragon, eggs in salmorrejo.
Story of the recipe
Salmorejo: where it comes from.
Salmorejo has its origin in a very old dish. In 1611, Covarrubias's dictionary defined «salmorejo» as a sauce or escabeche for rabbits, made with pepper, salt and other spices. The salmorejo we know today did not appear until the tomato, arrived from America, was added to that base of bread, oil, garlic and salt, probably in the 19th century or later: Ángel Muro's 1892 dictionary still defines it without tomato.
Its immediate predecessor was mazamorra, made with bread crumb, oil, garlic, vinegar and salt. In Córdoba the dish gained great momentum and became a local symbol, partly thanks to emblematic restaurants such as El Caballo Rojo.
Sources
By RecetarioMundo.