The new Martin Sheen movie,
The Way, has just hit selected theaters. When I first learned that Sheen and son Emilio Estevez were collaborating on a feature length film about pilgrims walking the
Camino de Santiago in northern Spain I was a wee bit skeptical. For one, I doubted how one could create a feature length drama about people getting up before dawn and walking for miles on end while incessantly complaining about their blisters, bunions, and back pains. More importantly, however, I was worried that a film about
El Camino, if successful over here, would result in an influx of Americans over there. I have walked that very pilgrim trail on several occasions and the noticeable absence of Americans is one of the things that makes it great.
The Sheens, to their credit, did a nice job putting together a pleasant film that really did capture the experience of walking the Camino de Santiago. It also brought back a lot of memories.
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| On the Way, Alto del Perdón, Pamplona-Puente La Reina, 2010 |
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| The end of the road, Santiago de Compostela, 2005 |
One of the features of the many
restaurantes strewn along the length of the Camino de Santiago is the seemingly ubiquitous
sopa de ajo - garlic soup. When I walked the Way in 2005, people would tell the story of this one unnamed pilgrim who would ramble on and on to anyone who would listen about the garlic soup that he hoped to consume at the end of the day. I never met this mysterious person, but I did have plenty of garlic soup that summer.
Far from an Iberian gourmet delicacy,
sopa de ajo is just one of those inexpensive Spanish country foods that has the same comfort food reputation as chicken noodle soup does here in the states.
I'll take the former any day.
Sopa de Ajo
- 1 cup olive oil
- 5 ounces day old bread
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp chopped onion
- 6 1/2 cups boiling water
- 1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika
- 1 spring fresh parsley
- salt and pepper
Heat oil in a skillet, add bread slices in batches and fry for two minutes or until golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels. Drain off oil leaving 4 tbsp. Add garlic and onion and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until softened. Remove from heat and sit in the paprika. Preheat oven to 350 F. Put the friend bread in an ovenproof casserole that can be used on stove top. Discard garlic and pit the onion paprika mixture onto the fried bread. Add the boiling water and season with salt. Stir, add parsley and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for five minutes. Transfer the casserole to the oven and bake for seven minutes until it forms a crust. Crack eggs onto the crust, season with a pinch of salt, and return to the over. Bake until whites are set and serve immediately.
A nice rioja goes well with Sopa de Ajo. In this instance, we had a bottle of
Sidra Asturiana, a sparkling cider from the northern region of Asturias and also pretty commonplace throughout the Basque Country.
