🇪🇸 Spain · Antequera, Málaga, Andalusia
Porra antequeranaCold Andalusian tomato bread soup
A thick cold soup from Antequera (Málaga), close kin to salmorejo, made of tomato, plenty of bread, green pepper, garlic, olive oil, salt and a little vinegar, garnished with hard-boiled egg, ham and often tuna.
Origin and history
Porra antequerana is a thick cold soup from Antequera, in the province of Málaga. It is named after the porra, the mortar-like vessel in which it was made. Antequera and Archidona both claim the tomato version, and the sources agree it is impossible to say which came first; the dish belongs to the old Andalusian family of cold bread-and-oil soups.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 45 min
- Hands-on
- 20 min
Ingredients
- 1 kg2.2 lb ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 400 g14 oz hard day-old country bread (pan de hogaza), soaked in cold water, then squeezed very dry; weight is of the soaked, drained bread
- 1 green Italian pepper (pimiento verde italiano), seeded; a green frying pepper or a small green bell pepper will do
- 1/2 red pepper, seeded; optional, for colour
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tbsp sherry vinegar (vinagre de Jerez)
- 175 ml3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp fine salt, adjust at the end
- 80 g3 oz jamón serrano, diced, for serving
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped, for serving
- 1 small can (about 80 g)1 small can (about 3 oz) tuna packed in water or oil, drained, flaked, for serving
Method
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1. Soak the bread in cold water until soft, then squeeze it hard in your hands until it stops dripping.
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2. Put the tomatoes, peppers and garlic in a blender and pulse until you have a uniform purée.
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3. Add the vinegar, the squeezed bread and the salt, and blend again until smooth.
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4. With the blender at medium speed, pour in the olive oil slowly so it emulsifies into a thick, pale orange cream.
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5. Check the texture: a spoon should stand upright in the porra. If it is too loose, blend in a little more squeezed bread.
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6. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until cold.
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7. Spoon into bowls and top with a thread of olive oil, chopped egg, diced ham and flaked tuna. Serve with picos or regañás (small crisp breads) if you have them.
Notes
- Total time: 45 min plus chilling.
- How it differs from salmorejo (its own recipe on this site): porra antequerana carries green pepper and a little vinegar, uses roughly twice the bread so it is firmer, and is often garnished with tuna as well as egg and ham. Not every source treats the two as separate dishes; the cook Charo Carmona, quoted by Directo al Paladar, calls them the same dish under two names, while others stress the pepper, vinegar and extra bread.
- The name comes from the porra, a mortar-like vessel it was made in, so it was originally pounded by hand. The blender is a modern shortcut.
- Quantities of bread vary from cook to cook; judge by the spoon test rather than the weight.
- In winter, when tomatoes are poor, Antequera makes a porra with oranges instead. There is also an older white porra of bread, garlic, oil and vinegar with no tomato.
- Do not confuse it with the sweet fried porras (a churro-like fritter).
- Antequera and nearby Archidona both claim the tomato porra; nobody knows where it was first made.
Adapted from Cómo hacer porra antequerana, la receta tradicional malagueña, Directo al Paladar and Salmorejos diferentes en Andalucía, Hola.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.