sopa de ajo with pa amb tomàquet sandwich

Dipped in the ink of the fight

Written clean through the night

Mark my words upon the front page

To set my world straight

“Letter to Bowie Knife” by Calexico

A new tapas place opened up blocks away from our house that makes some really great Spanish food. Recently, we went with a bunch of friends and started our meal out with some garlic soup. The hearty, garlicky soup’s broth tasted like it was made straight from a slab of bacon.  We asked the waiter and he assured us there was no bacon in the dish, it was the Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton) that gave the soup the rich, smoky flavor.  After doing some research, I found many recipes for this soup (sopa de ajo).  I decided that only bacon could make this soup even better, I think I was right.

The other thing that was really awesome was a really simple appetizer.  The dish (pa amb tomàquet) involved grilling bread until near burnt and then smearing extremely ripe tomatoes on the warm bread.  This is finished off with some really great olive oil.  I made a sandwich inspired by this appetizer that I thought would go well with the garlic soup.

Sopa de Ajo

Serves four

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 slices bacon, diced
8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
6 cups chicken broth
½ of a baguette cut into ½ inch slices and toasted (about ten slices)
4 egg whites

Directions:

1.    Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat, add bacon
2.    Cook the bacon until all of the fat has been rendered, then lower the heat to low
3.    Once the heat has sufficiently lowered, add the garlic, sauté until soft but not brown, about three minutes
4.    Add the chicken broth, pimenton, and cumin, bring to a boil
5.    Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the bread, simmer bread for five minutes, stir occassionally making sure bread breaks down into smaller pieces
6.    Add egg whites stirring the soup to make sure they don’t clump up, cook for about three minutes
7.    Season with salt and serve

Pa Amb Tomàquet Sandwich

Makes two sandwiches

Ingredients:

½ of a baguette sliced lengthwise
2 ripe tomatoes, cut crosswise
1/4  pound Manchego cheese, cut into slices
6 slices of Serrano Ham
Good olive oil

Directions:

1.    Preheat broiler
2.    Grill the bread until deep brown, almost black
3.    Squeeze and rub the tomato on top of grilled bread, trying to use all of the tomato except the skin
4.    Drizzle with a healthy amount of olive oil
5.    Place cheese slices on one half of the bread and ham on the other half
6.    Place under the broiler until the cheese has just melted
7.    Assemble the sandwich, cut in half (or just leave as one big sandwich) and serve with garlic soup

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