Castilian garlic soup
Castilian garlic soup is the oldest comfort of mountain cuisine: stale bread, browned garlic, paprika, egg and oil.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 25 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- Easy
What you need
- 200 g stale Castilian bread (hogaza loaf)
- 6 garlic cloves, sliced
- 100 g cured ham, diced
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 1.5 litres chicken stock or water
- 4 eggs
- 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Fresh chopped parsley
Step by step
- 01
Cut the bread into thin slices and then small pieces. If too hard, soften with a little warm stock.
- 02
In a clay pot or wide pan, heat the oil and brown the sliced garlic over medium heat without burning. Remove half and reserve.
- 03
Add the ham and sauté 2 minutes.
- 04
Remove from heat, add the paprika and stir quickly (it must not burn).
- 05
Return to heat, add the bread and stir. Pour in hot stock, bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook 15 minutes.
- 06
Adjust salt. Five minutes before serving, crack the eggs into the soup, cover and let the whites set with runny yolks.
- 07
Serve in the same pot, sprinkle with reserved garlic and parsley.
- Clay pot is the traditional vessel: it holds heat better and the soup concentrates flavour.
- Grandma variant: instead of cracking eggs, beat 4 eggs and pour in a stream over the hot soup.
Other traditional recipes
- MeatsGallina en pepitoriaPepitoria is one of the oldest Castilian stews and an emblematic dish of Atienza cuisine: chicken, almonds, saffron, hard-boiled egg and white wine.
- MeatsWood-fired roast lambThe star dish of Atienza mountain cuisine: milk-fed lamb roasted whole, with lard, garlic and white wine. Traditional recipe for the home oven.
- SweetsTraditional Easter torrijasThe undisputed sweet of Atienza Easter: bread slices soaked in milk infused with cinnamon and lemon, coated in egg and fried in hot oil.
Taste it in Atienza
The village restaurants serve the traditional recipe book all year round.