Garlic Soup (Sopa de ajos)
Ingredients
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 6 eggs 1 per person
- 12 slices of hard bread
- 150 g of serrano ham (if you do not have serrano ham you can substitute it for a smoked or cooked ham of quality and although the result is not the same, we will also be able to give it some flavor).
- 3 liters of chicken broth or water broth the volume depends on the casserole where you prepare it
- Salt (to the taste of each house remember that it has ham and that will add salt already)
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of Pimentón de La Vera we can use as substitute regular sweet paprika
- 50 ml of extra virgin olive oil
Servings: people
Instructions
- We prepare the "majado" or paste by peeling and fillet the garlic, it does not need to be very thin. Garlic must smell and also provide the emulsion between water and oil so that the soup is excellent. We serve it in a bowl.
- We choose a large casserole, heat the oil in the bottom and introduce the garlic. Saute until they start to catch a golden color (but be careful they do not snatch). We also add ham cut into small pieces. We stir with a wooden spoon in an enveloping way until the flavors are well combined.
- When the garlic has a toasted honey color we add 6 slices of hard bread and we give them a few turns. Remove the casserole from the heat and sprinkle with the sweet paprika with the casserole out of the fire to prevent the paprika from burning.
Now we proceed to cook the Garlic Soup
- We stir everything well and that the oil is combined with garlic, ham, hard bread and paprika.
- We return the casserole to the fire and add the broth or water. The broth should be cooked over low heat to prevent it from breaking to a boil during the cooking process.
- Cook over moderate heat, to prevent it from breaking to boil during the cooking process, for about 20 minutes, at that time it is not necessary to stir the soup.
- After 20 minutes we add the rest of the bread, the other 6 slices that we have previously toasted with a little extra virgin olive oil.
- We place on the surface and let them float until they soften.
- Add salt and freshly ground black pepper. We try the broth before adding the salt since depending on the amount of ham and salty it may not be necessary.
We serve the garlic soup the following way:
- We break the eggs and throw them in the soup. An egg is usually added per guest. Let curdle for 2-3 minutes. Another option is to separate the whites from the yolks and add only the whites to the soup.
- We put the yolk in each dish, it is cooked with the heat of the soup. When we add the soup to the bowl, the yolk is mixed with the soup and is delicious.
- The egg will be either in the form of a spun egg or poached.
- We serve very hot in a bowl or if we have in clay pots even better as that's how it's usually served.
