The population of Hispania was slowly assimilated by the Romans. Sort of like the Borg in Star Trek: You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile . No wonder then that the Spanish culinary tradition is a vague copy of the Italian one. There are many similarities, but also considerable differences.
Salmorejo, for example, is a thick soup (or puree) consisting of tomato, bread, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, vinegar and salt. This soup is native to the southern Spanish region of Cordoba.
This soup is a bit more pink to orange in colour than gazpacho and is also much thicker and creamier than its counterpart. This is because more bread is used in it.
Usually, the tomatoes are first peeled and then pureed with all the other ingredients. The puree is served cold and can be larded with pieces of Serrano ham and hard-boiled eggs.
Around 1800, the taste was still described as brain salt with vinegar. In other words: tomatoes were also a (too) late addition to this dish because tomatoes were also viewed with a suspicious eye in Spain for centuries.
But because salmorejo was once brain salt, we can also understand the origin of the name. It was originally a Roman dish called moretum , a precursor to pesto. In this we can recognise the outdated name for a mortar. So the second part of salmorejo, morejo , can be understood as 'mortar'. The first part of salmorejo, sal , is easier to explain, because it means 'salt'.
At first glance, there are considerable differences between the Spanish and Italian versions, but take away the tomatoes and the difference is negligible. On the Italian coasts, fish is always available, while in the bone-dry Spanish interior you have to make do with old bread.
