Garlic Soup (Sopa de ajo)
This is a very economical and delicious soup that was
devised by peasants to kill their hunger and warm their
bodies in the long winter nights of a God-forgotten Spain.
The idea was to make a good use of bread leftovers, as
even bread was very expensive in those dire days.
Four servings: Garlic: 1 and half bulb; four 1-inch thick
dried out baguette slices of bread (100 g/0.22 pounds); 1
liter and a half of a light stock (1 1/2 L of water enriched
with 2 stock cubes will do); 2/3 eggs; 4 tbsp of olive oil;
black pepper (1tsp); salt (1 tsp); paprika 1 tsp).
Preparation: Shred the bread into small pieces and add it
to the stock. In the meantime, peel the garlic cloves and
fried them in a sauce pan with the oil on a medium fire ring
until the cloves get a brownish color. Keep aside part of the
oil and start mashing the garlic, the pepper, the red paprika
and the salt in a mortar to get a brownish-red paste that will
be incorporated to the stock together with part of the oil.
Stir the soup with a wire whip to allow the bread get thinner
and to obtain a good mixture of all the ingredients. Crack
the eggs and stir both yolks and whites in the mortar with a
fork (don't use the wire whip now as it would add air to
mixture, and this is not a dessert). Finally, allow the soup to
simmer for 10 minutes, cut the fire and slowly add the
whisked eggs while stirring the soup with a fork to mix all
the ingredients.
Typically Castilian in origin, the garlic soup is a traditional dish with a humble origin, which has undergone, with the passage of time, many variations in
different parts of Spain. The Castilian garlic soup is one of the typical dishes of the Spanish cuisine that has a special significance in the area of Madrid and
Castilla-Leon, although it is well known and prepared all over Spain. There are as many recipes as cooks, but garlic and bread are still the basic ingredients of
this humble recipe that, over time, has evolved to become a special dish, with a series of ingredients that unthinkable in the middle ages for a normal family.