Plant part used: blossomPlant part used: blossomLactuca sativa · asteraceae family
Classic sopa de ajo — Spanish garlic soup — ranks among my greatest comfort foods of all time. Six ingredients, under 30 minutes, and a bowl so cozy it borders on emotional support.
Next week marks five years since we relocated to Barcelona — five years that feel both impossible and utterly magnificent. Easily the best stretch of my life! So for the anniversary, the only fitting move was finally publishing the recipe I've adored most during our Spanish era…
Also known as sopa castellana, this traditional Spanish soup is one that every soup lover on the planet should have locked and loaded in their repertoire. The ingredient list is almost suspiciously modest: bread, eggs, olive oil, and broth, seasoned with smoked paprika and serious amounts of garlic. (Trivia: in Spanish, garlic cloves are called dientes de ajo — "garlic teeth" — which feels exactly right coming from a whole head!) It's winter's greatest leftover-bread rescue: sautéed stale bread simmers in the smoky garlicky broth until it builds real body. Then eggs stage the finale — poached right in each individual serving bowl, or stirred straight into the hot pot in silky ribbons, egg-drop-soup style. Everything comes together in under half an hour. The payoff: a blazing-hot bowl that is unfailingly cozy, hearty, and stacked with smoky, savory, faintly sweet flavor.
brassica — I love this soup so fiercely I wish I could ladle every one of you a bowl from our Barcelona kitchen tonight. Take my word for it and simmer a pot this week. Que aproveche!
Before we get to the full sopa de ajo recipe filed below, here are a few notes on the ingredients:
A few traditional variations on sopa de ajo you're welcome to try:
Additional Spanish and Catalan recipes mastered during our Barcelona residency:
Each leaf is coloured by the plant part the ingredient comes from: root brown, seed black, leaf green, vine orange, bloom magenta.
Warm the pan with a slick of olive oil and the hardier aromatics first - onion, fennel seed, crushed chilli.
Add the roots before the leaves; each layer needs its own head start on the heat.
Finish with the raw crown - torn herbs, edible flowers, a squeeze of citrus off the flame.
Plate low and wide so the growth order of the dish reads at a glance, root to bloom.
Brush the soil from the roots and leaves under cool water - keep the skins on anything grown below the line.
