Salmorejo Cordobés

Put the 2 eggs in a small pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. From the moment the water boils, count 10 minutes.

💡 Start timing at the boil, not when you turn the heat on — that one habit is the difference between a set yolk and a grey ring.

Lift the eggs out and let them cool completely while you make the soup. Set them aside unpeeled.

Wash the 1 kg of tomatoes, cut them into rough chunks and drop them straight into a tall blender jug. No need to peel or core them.

💡 Skins and seeds go in now because they come out later at the sieve. Peeling raw tomatoes here is wasted work.

Blend the tomatoes hard with a stick blender until you have a loose, foamy juice with no lumps left, about 1 minute.

Pour the purée through a fine sieve into a clean jug, pressing the pulp with a ladle. The skins and seeds stay behind; what falls through is smooth and bright.

💡 Skipping the sieve is the single most common salmorejo mistake — tomato skin never blends smooth and leaves the soup gritty on the tongue.

Tear the 200 g of bread crumb into rough pieces and drop them into the strained tomato. Push them under and leave them a couple of minutes to drink it up.

💡 Tear the bread, don't cube it. Torn edges swell faster and blend away without leaving little white specks.

Peel and finely chop the single garlic clove and add it, along with a good pinch of salt.

Blend again until the mixture is completely homogeneous and has visibly thickened — the bread turns the juice into a cream.

With the blender running, pour in the 100 ml of olive oil in a thin, steady stream. The colour lifts from red to a pale coral as it emulsifies.

💡 Dumping the oil in all at once can break the emulsion and leave an oily film on top. Thin stream, blender running — that's the whole trick.

Taste and adjust the salt now, while it is still at room temperature. Cold blunts salt, so it should taste very slightly over-seasoned.

Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, until it is properly cold and has thickened further.

💡 Salmorejo served cool-ish is a different, lesser dish. It wants to be genuinely cold and thick enough to coat a spoon.

Peel the cooled eggs and cut them into small dice. Cut the 100 g of jamón into little cubes as well.

Ladle the cold salmorejo into bowls, scatter the egg and jamón over the top, add a few parsley leaves and a last thread of olive oil, and serve straight away.

💡 Garnish at the table. Egg and ham sitting in the soup in the fridge go soggy and dull the whole bowl.