Meet ajo blanco, gazpacho's garlicky cousin.
There's a hierarchy in the world of bread soups—a hierarchy of appeal. See, it takes relatively little to convince most people that gazpacho is an appealing idea. Who wouldn't want a chilled tomato soup, loaded with the ripe flavors of summer? The bread in it is almost a footnote. One step down is Italian, a warm tomato soup in which the pieces of bread have softened to a custardy texture.
So, how can I convince you to add this soup to your summer recipe rotation if it isn't there already? Some people take the easy route by calling this soup"white gazpacho," which is a pretty slick marketing device, and not entirely inaccurate—before tomatoes arrived in Europe from the Americas, ajo blanco was about the closest thing to gazpacho that one was likely to find in Spain.
Next, I would fill in an important blank: The soup may be named for the garlic in it, but the real main ingredient is almonds. The garlic adds complexity and some kick, but it's the almonds that give ajo blanco its soul. Once blended, they release their milk, with its delicate floral and nutty fragrance, into the soup. When it meets the thickening power of the bread, the almond milk takes on an uncanny creaminess—you simply can't believe this is a dairy-free soup .
One note on the bread. Historically, most bread soups have been a vehicle for stale bread that otherwise would have gone to waste. But, after lots of testing on this soup and other bread soups, I've found that it simply doesn't matter what you use. This soup works with stale bread, it works with oven-dried bread, and it works with fresh bread. Once the bread is fully saturated with liquid, you cannot tell the difference.
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