In Andalusia, July and August are hot and dry—the perfect weather for salmorejo, an ice-cold tomato soup that’s ripe with flavor. When I contacted José Andrés, the world-renowned Spanish American restaurateur, cookbook author, and founder of the humanitarian aid group World Central Kitchen, he dubbed the lush soup “gazpacho’s richer, more sophisticated sibling.” It’s a summertime staple in Cordoba, he said, where the “velvety-smooth puree of tomatoes, garlic, day-old bread, and a river of olive oil” originated.
For a soup that exudes elegance, salmorejo was born of humble beginnings. It’s a derivative of mazamorra, a dish that was originally made in the Middle Ages by pounding bread, garlic, oil, and vinegar in a mortar and pestle to a porridge-like consistency. When tomatoes began to be cultivated in the Iberian peninsula…
