GAZPACHOS—PERFECT ON A FRIGID WINTER DAY

 

Gazpachos for winter? Yes, this La Mancha stew is called gazpachos. What looks like squares of pasta are pieces of torta, a thin, unleavened bread.

Here’s a robust and warming stew, perfect for these frigid late winter days. Yes, gazpachos. Take note, this stew is “gazpachos”—plural—not to be confused with Andalusian cold soup (though the origin of the name is the same, as "gazpacho" refers to fragments of bread). 

Gazpachos is an ancient dish, with its roots in the pastoral life of La Mancha. Shepherds tending their flocks far from villages cooked whatever small game they could shoot or bring down with a slingshot, such as hare, rabbit, partridge, dove. Sometimes foraged greens such as collejas, bladder campion; wild herbs such as pebrella, a kind of thyme, or wild mushrooms were added. The meat was stewed over a wood fire and embellished with torta cenceña, a round, unleavened campfire bread that thickened the stew and served as an edible dinner plate.

Tortas for adding to gazpachos stew.

Over the years, gazpachos has been “domesticated,” prepared in home kitchens with chicken and farm-raised rabbit, rather than game. A commercial version of the torta is sold in La Mancha today. It’s a crisp, flatbread, about 15 inches in diameter, that looks, for all the world, like matzah on steroids.  (Tortas cenceñas, pictured at left, can be ordered in Spain from Rincon de la Mancha.)

Homemade torta--flatbreads cooked on a griddle.

Homemade torta is soft and pliable when fresh off the griddle, but, it quickly dries into hardtack. Break it into pieces before adding to the stew, where it cooks up like pasta.

If you don’t want to prepare the homemade version, substitute other unleavened bread/crackers, such as Hebrew matzah or water biscuits (crackers).

I am using dark meat turkey instead of wild game for this stew. The bone-in turkey makes a deeply flavored cooking liquid. Once the meat is tender, it’s skimmed out and stripped off the bones. Instead of foraged greens and wild mushrooms, I’ve added chard and (cultivated) oyster mushrooms. 

Instead of wild game and foraged wild greens, I've added turkey and chard to the stew.

Chunks of meat, soft torta, mushrooms and greens make a hearty winter stew. Serve gazpachos with a D.O. La Mancha Tempranillo wine. 

La Mancha Gazpachos Stew with Tortas

Gazpachos Manchegos

Dark meat turkey lends this stew a slightly gamey taste, reminiscent of wild hare. It's a firm meat that won’t disintegrate easily in slow cooking. If you are substituting regular chicken or farmed rabbit, take care not to overcook the meat. It can be left on the bone or deboned as directed for the turkey. 

Use the same sofrito and tortas to make vegetarian or seafood gazpachos. 

 

Serves 6.

Debone the turkey after cooking.

3 pounds turkey drumsticks and/or thighs

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

2 teaspoons pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)

1 cup grated tomato pulp or crushed tomatoes

1 whole head of garlic

6 cups hot water

2 bay leaves

Sprigs of thyme

Sprig rosemary

Pinch of ground cloves

1 ½ cups sliced oyster mushrooms, sautéed in oil (optional)

2 cups chopped and blanched chard or other greens (optional)

6 tortas (recipe follows) or sheets of matzah or 24 water biscuits, broken into pieces

Sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper and allow it to come to room temperature.

Heat the oil in a deep pan or cazuela. Brown the turkey pieces on a medium heat, turning them to brown all sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the turkey.

Stew turkey with garlic, herbs.

In remaining oil, sauté the onion until it begins to brown, 5 minutes. Add the two kinds of peppers and continue sautéing. Stir in the pimentón. Add the tomato pulp and fry a few minutes. Return the pieces of turkey to the pan.

 

Peel off papery outer layers from the head of garlic. Slice off the top of the head, leaving the cloves attached at the root. Tuck the head of garlic into the pan with the turkey. 

Add the water to the pan. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves, rosemary and cloves. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook slowly until turkey is very tender, turning the pieces occasionally, about 1 hour.

Lift the turkey pieces and head of garlic out of the broth and reserve. Discard bay leaves and sprigs of herbs. When cool enough to handle, strip the turkey meat, with or without skin, from the bones, discarding bones and tendons. Cut the chunks of meat into pieces. Reserve. Squeeze softened garlic from the skins. Mash the garlic and return it to the broth in the pan. (The meat and cooking broth can be stored separately, covered and refrigerated, until the following day. Bring them to room temperature before continuing the stew.)

Add the mushrooms and chard, if using, to the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil. Break the tortas or matzah into approximate 2-inch pieces. Drop them into the pan. Reduce heat to a gentle bubble. Cook the tortas until they soak up some of the cooking liquid, 5 minutes. (If most of the broth has cooked away, it may be necessary to add water before incorporating the pieces of torta.)

Add the pieces of cooked turkey and cook until they are thoroughly heated, 5-10 minutes. Allow the stew to settle 5 minutes. The gazpachos stew can be served in the same pan in which it cooked. If desired, garnish with a fresh sprig of thyme.

Unleavened Flatbreads

Tortas Cenceñas para Gazpachos

Thinly rolled dough of flour, salt and water is cooked on a griddle until blistered and browned. 

Tortas can be made days before using in the gazpachos stew. They turn hard as they cool. Store them in air-tight zip bags. 

Roll the dough out as thinly as possible--cenceñas means "thin;" ácimas means "unleavened."

The tortas can be cooked—with no oil—on a plancha, griddle or cast iron skillet (I watched a YouTube video for homemade tortas where they were cooked on an upside-down skillet of rolled steel on a gas stove!) or baked in the oven. 

Break them up into small pieces to add to the stew. The pieces will soften in about 10 minutes of cooking in the liquid. You can also place a whole one in a bowl and ladle some of the liquid on top to soften it, then serve the stew over it. 

½ cup water

2 teaspoons salt

1 ¾ cups flour plus additional for rolling out

Place the water and salt in a pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir to dissolve the salt. Pour the water into a mixing bowl and allow it to cool to tepid.

Roll dough into balls.

Stir the flour into the water gradually. Once it comes together as a dough, press into a ball and turn out onto a board. Using a little flour if necessary, knead the dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky. Gather into a ball, cover the dough with a damp cloth and allow it to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into 8 equal-sized pieces. Roll them into balls. Keep them covered so the dough doesn’t dry out. Roll the balls out thinly into 8-inch disks. Stack the disks with parchment between them to make it easier to separate them. Cover again with damp cloth.

Cook the disks on a plancha, griddle or cast-iron skillet until they begin to blister and brown in spots, about 1 minute per side. Remove from the heat and allow the tortas to cool. They will harden as they cool.

Torta pieces for gazpachos.

Alternatively, the tortas can be baked (400ºF /15 minutes). Prick them all over with a fork so they don’t puff up in baking. If desired, they can be cut with a pastry wheel into squares. 

Store the tortas in an airtight zip bag.

Add torta pieces to the stew. They soak up liquid.

To use the tortas, cut or break them into pieces—any shape or size. Incorporate them into the gazpachos or other soup or stew during the last 10 minutes of cooking. They will soften, somewhat like pasta, as they cook and soak up cooking liquid.