Mazamorra
Photo: Mil va · Public domain

History

Mazamorra is what Córdoba ate before the tomato arrived. Roman in origin and kept alive by olive-grove labourers who needed cold calories in the heat, it is a mortar dish of stale bread, almonds, garlic, oil, vinegar and salt, closely related to the ajoblanco of Málaga. When the tomato finally reached Andalusian kitchens in the eighteenth century it displaced mazamorra almost entirely, and the older soup survived only in a handful of houses. Taberna La Montillana is the reliable place to find it today, and its reappearance on modern Córdoba cartas is a deliberate act of recovery rather than an unbroken tradition.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Nuts

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4Hands-on 15 minTotal 2 hr 15 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 150g stale white bread, crusts removed
  • 150g blanched almonds
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • 150ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons sherry or wine vinegar
  • 600ml very cold water
  • Fine salt
  • To serve: diced apple, raisins or shredded salt cod

Method

  1. Soak the bread in a little of the cold water for 10 minutes, then squeeze out the excess.
  2. Blend the almonds and garlic to a fine paste, adding a splash of water to get them moving.
  3. Add the soaked bread and blend again until completely smooth.
  4. With the blender running, pour in the olive oil in a thin stream until the mixture turns white and thick.
  5. Loosen with the remaining cold water to a pourable cream, then season with vinegar and salt.
  6. Chill for two hours and serve cold, topped with diced apple, raisins or salt cod.

Tip from the editors. Blanched almonds only. Skin-on almonds turn the colour grey and put a bitter edge behind the garlic.

Where to eat mazamorra

Mazamorra in Córdoba

Taberna La Montillana ★ 4.4

€€ AndalusianCentro

Taberna La Montillana has stood beside San Miguel in Córdoba since 1948 and makes almost no concessions to the tourist trade a few streets south.

Why locals goIt still carries mazamorra, the almond and bread soup that predates the tomato and fathered salmorejo, and almost no Judería kitchen makes it.

TipOrder the mazamorra rather than the salmorejo; it is the older dish and the harder one to find.

Directions

Casa Pepe de la Judería ★ 4.4

€€€ AndalusianJuderia

Casa Pepe de la Judería has fed Córdoba since 1928, a taberna downstairs and a roof terrace upstairs that looks straight at the Mezquita tower.

OrderMazamorra, the almond-and-bread ancestor of salmorejo.

TipThe roof terrace is the reason to come, so ask for it when you book rather than taking a ground-floor table.

Directions

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