Granada has many good things: anchovies amoragaosthe morels, the Albaicín, the piononos and the ability to invent a soup that heats up to the eyelashes without many ingredients or hours on the stove. The escarole granaína soup is one of those humble recipes that are cooked “with what is there”, within a range of refined foods for generations that have already undergone many tests so that we do not make mistakes.
In its simplest version it has stale bread, almonds, garlic and escarole, to which we can add ham, its bone, broth or eggs: even in the most complete mode, practically everything falls into the category of pantry basics.
The trick to adding flavor and texture is once again through the classic “fry and mash,” which along with “garlic and paprika” was one of the most used techniques in this country to get the best out of any food when there wasn’t much of it (and both are still perfectly valid). If cooking escarole seems strange to you, consider that in Italy they cook other smooth or curly asteraceae that are very similar to it in various ways.
To start with this soup, like almost all other Granada recipes, we turn to the wisdom of Ana María Gutiérrez of Cocinando entre olivos, who cooks it with water and a ham bone and finishes with a few pieces. I tried it like this and also without ham, using a little vegetable broth instead of water and with a poached egg. They were both delicious, so here they are in a lacto-ovo-vegetarian or pork version, as you like.
Time: 22 minutes
Difficulty: Decide if you want it with ham, eggs or everything
Ingredients
For 4 people
- 1 medium endive (about 400 g)
- 4 or 5 cloves of garlic
- 40 g of peeled raw almonds
- 60 g of stale bread (preferably with a compact crumb)
- 1 ham bone and some trimmings to serve (optional)
- 1.5 l of vegetable broth (if you don’t use ham, optional)
- 4 eggs (optional)
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
Instructions
Heat 1.5 liters of water with the ham bone and bring to the boil over low heat for 10 minutes.
Add the escarole cut into pieces – eliminating the toughest and ugliest parts – and leave to boil for another 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a nice pan of oil in a large pan and sauté the whole garlic, almonds and chopped bread until golden brown without burning.
Transfer everything to the glass of a blender and blend with a cup of hot broth until the mixture is as fine as you like.
Add the puree to the soup, mix well and simmer for another five minutes, to thicken and the flavors to blend.
Remove the ham bone. If using, break the eggs one by one directly into the hot soup and leave them to harden over a very low heat for two or three minutes, with the pan covered, until the egg whites are cooked and the yolks are still juicy.
Season with salt and serve hot with a drizzle of oil or the ham scraps.
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