Salmorejo: the Andalusian classic that never really went out of fashion

Good morning!

It has been long overdue and now the time has come to apply our minds to adding a cooking section to our blog. We would like to help you enjoy food and make the best of our EVOOs in your kitchen.

Possibly the most difficult decision was choosing a first dish to kick start the section and finally we have gone for a classic Andalusian summer hit as our first entry: Salmorejo. Originally from Cordova, it makes a virtue of simplicity –cooking with children anyone? and it takes barely 10 min to prepare. As we try to cope with summer temperatures, what could possibly beat this smoothy-like soup made with raw veggies and served chilled at your dinner table sprinkled with serrano ham? There is one last, but not least, reason for choosing this dish. The salmorejo is as good as the ingredients used and we think the premium nature, personality, and exclusive taste of Quaryat Picual is an ideal fit for this Cordovan delight.

Let’s get started!

½ kilo of ripe tomatoes

100 grams of hard loaf bread (3-4 days old, for a thicker texture, add more bread)

1 clove of garlic

½ small onion

1 teaspoon of vinegar

2 pinches of salt

100 ml Quaryat Picual

50 grams of serrano ham

2 eggs

First, soak the bread for 5 min before you start.

Second, peel and cut garlic in half, taking out the heart to stop it repeating on you. Then chop finely and put aside. The chopping can be done in the same blender we’ll use to mix the rest of the ingredients so more of the essence from the garlic will stay in the glass.

Now chop the tomatoes and onion and blend together with the garlic, going from low to full power steadily until we get a liquid texture. When we are there, we then add the bread (don’t forget to rinse off excess water), Quaryat Picual, salt and vinegar. We keep blending until we get an even texture.

After this, we leave our dish in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Salmorejo hard-boiled eggs take 12 min to cook from boiling point but remember to take them out of the fridge early since it is boiling straight from the fridge what makes the shell crack. Once it’s finished put it under cold running water and take off the shell. Then dice the eggs into small cubes and put aside.

To avoid the ham being too dominant a taste, finely chop before adding it to your dish.

The salmorejo is ready to serve when is cold enough. Together with the ham and egg, decorate your dish with a parsley leave and is now ready to be enjoyed: Buen provecho!