Chef Isabel
Ajo Carretero de Soria
Ajo carretero is Soriano, from the pine country of Soria: lamb cooked in a plain garlicky broth, then served the old way, meat first and bread-soaked soup after.
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Zurrukutuna Basque Salt-Cod Garlic Bread Soup
Created by
Zurrukutuna is Basque cocina de cuchara: salt cod, garlic, sopako bread, and choricero pepper simmered into a thick red soup where the bread must soften without turning pasty.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
Easter
25 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 10 min total
Yield4 servings
Zurrukutuna is Basque, a salt-cod garlic bread soup from the north, and it is not just any sopa de ajo with fish dropped in. The bacalao gives the broth its body, the garlic gives it its bite, and the dried sopako bread thickens it until the spoon leaves a slow track through the bowl. This is Lenten cooking with a backbone. No meat, no fuss, and no need to lean on an egg for richness.
The bread decides the soup. Use sopako if you can, that hard Basque bread made for soups, and toast it in the garlic oil before the broth goes in. Then simmer it gently until it swells and softens into the soup without turning to glue. Rush it with soft bread or a hard boil and you get paste, and paste is not supper.
If you're far from Euskadi, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use a dense country loaf or sourdough cut thin and dried hard in a low oven; it will taste a little less wheaty than sopako, but it will behave. Frozen desalted bacalao is fine if it's good, and pimiento choricero paste from a jar saves you twenty minutes. Fresh cod is another soup. This one asks for salt cod, garlic, bread, and patience. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Zurrukutuna belongs to the Basque family of garlic soups, but the salt cod marks it as a Lenten dish, shaped by the old Catholic abstinence from meat and by a coast and inland trade that made bacalao a reliable pantry fish. Sopako bread, dried hard for soups, gave Basque homes a way to stretch garlic, oil, pepper, and fish into a filling bowl of cocina de cuchara, spoon food. The choricero pepper brings the red depth of the Basque and Navarrese larder, a softer, rounder color than tomato and truer to this soup.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
desalted salt cod
Quantity
300g
skin on if possible, bones removed after poaching
sopako bread or dense stale country bread
Quantity
150g
sliced thin and dried hard
cold water
Quantity
1.2 litres
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
80ml
garlic cloves
Quantity
8
thinly sliced
dried pimientos choriceros
Quantity
2
soaked and pulp scraped
jarred choricero pepper pulp (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
sweet pimentón
Quantity
1 teaspoon
dried guindilla or cayenne (optional)
Quantity
1 small guindilla or 1 pinch
salt
Quantity
only if needed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| desalted salt codskin on if possible, bones removed after poaching | 300g |
| sopako bread or dense stale country breadsliced thin and dried hard | 150g |
| cold water | 1.2 litres |
| extra virgin olive oil | 80ml |
| garlic clovesthinly sliced | 8 |
| dried pimientos choricerossoaked and pulp scraped | 2 |
| jarred choricero pepper pulp (optional) | 2 tablespoons |
| sweet pimentón | 1 teaspoon |
| dried guindilla or cayenne (optional) | 1 small guindilla or 1 pinch |
| salt | only if needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy cazuela or wide 3 litre saucepan
- •Fine strainer
- •Wooden spoon
- •Small bowl for soaking choricero peppers
Instructions
- 1
Desalt the cod
If starting with dry salted bacalao, rinse off the surface salt and soak it in cold water in the refrigerator for 24 to 36 hours, changing the water 3 or 4 times. Thick pieces need the longer soak. Taste a tiny flake after poaching later; it should season the soup, not punish it.
Frozen desalted bacalao is a good shortcut if the fish is firm and smells clean. Pésalo, no lo adivines: you want about 300g ready to cook. - 2
Prepare pepper and bread
Put the dried choricero peppers in a bowl, cover with hot water, and leave them 20 minutes until soft. Split them open, scrape out the red pulp with the back of a knife, and discard the skins and seeds. If your bread is not already hard, dry the slices in a low oven until crisp all the way through; soft bread turns this soup heavy.
- 3
Make cod broth
Put the desalted cod in a pot with 1.2 litres cold water. Bring it slowly to the gentlest tremble, then cook 8 to 10 minutes, just until the flakes separate. Lift the cod out, keep the broth, and remove any bones. Flake the fish into large pieces. If you have skin, simmer it in the broth for 10 more minutes and strain; that little gelatin is worth having.
- 4
Cook the garlic
Warm the olive oil in a heavy cazuela or wide saucepan over low heat. Add the sliced garlic and the guindilla if using, and cook slowly until the garlic is pale gold at the edges, not brown. Pull the pan off the heat and stir in the pimentón and choricero pulp. Off the heat matters, because scorched pimentón turns bitter and takes the whole pot with it.
- 5
Toast the bread
Add the dried bread to the garlic oil and turn it through until every piece is stained red and glossy. Let it fry gently for 2 minutes, pressing it down so it drinks the oil. This is the step that decides the texture: the bread must meet the oil before the broth, so it thickens the soup in soft pieces instead of breaking down into paste.
- 6
Simmer the soup
Pour in the hot cod broth, stirring as you go, and bring the soup to a low simmer. Cook 18 to 22 minutes, stirring now and then, until the bread swells, the broth turns brick red, and the spoon finds some body. Mash a few pieces of bread against the side of the pot, but leave others ragged. Zurrukutuna should be thick and spoonable, not smooth.
- 7
Finish with cod
Fold in the flaked bacalao and simmer 3 to 4 minutes more, only long enough to warm it through. Taste before adding any salt; the cod may have done the work already. Rest the soup off the heat for 5 minutes, then serve it in deep bowls with a little oil from the pot spooned over the top. Tal como se hace allí: plain, red, garlicky, and filling.
Chef Tips
- •Sopako bread is made for soup, dried hard enough to hold its shape while it thickens the broth. If you can't find it, use a dense country loaf or sourdough, sliced thin and dried in a 120C oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Sandwich bread is too soft. It gives you paste.
- •Use salt cod, not fresh cod. Fresh cod will cook, yes, but it won't give the broth that cured depth or the steady salt the dish is built on. Frozen desalted bacalao is the better substitute, and you can season at the end if it is mild.
- •Choricero pepper pulp is the Basque flavor here. If you cannot find it, use 2 soaked ñoras scraped for pulp and keep the teaspoon of pimentón. The soup will be a little less deep and a little sweeter, but it stays in the right family.
- •There are garlic soups where an egg is cracked in at the end. This one is carried by bacalao and bread. Add egg if your house does, but know what changes: the soup turns softer and richer, and the salt cod no longer stands alone.
- •Leftovers thicken hard in the fridge because the bread keeps drinking. Loosen them with water or a little reserved cod broth and reheat gently, stirring from the bottom so the bread doesn't catch.
Advance Preparation
- •Desalt dry bacalao 24 to 36 hours ahead in the refrigerator, changing the water several times. This is not fussy work, just necessary work.
- •Dry the bread a day ahead, or bake it low until hard. The soup behaves better when the bread is truly dry.
- •The cod broth can be made up to 1 day ahead and chilled. Keep the flaked cod separate, then finish the soup with it just before serving.
- •The finished soup keeps 2 days refrigerated, but it will thicken. Loosen gently with water as it reheats and taste for salt again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 395g)
Calories
355 calories
Total Fat
20 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
17 g
Cholesterol
35 mg
Sodium
700 mg
Total Carbohydrates
22 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
21 g
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