Sopa de Pan Coleta

Ingredients

• 1 baguette or 300 g day-old white bread, cut into 1.5 cm slices
• 100 ml olive oil
• 3 corn cobs
• 1.5 litres vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 eggs
• 1 ripe plantain, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
• 60 g blanched almonds
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 400 g ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 carrots, sliced into rounds
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 150 g green beans, cut into 3 cm lengths
• 120 g peas
• 1 large pinch saffron threads
• 60 g raisins
• 60 g green olives, pitted
• 2 tbsp capers, rinsed
• 150 g queso fresco or panela, crumbled
• 1.5 tsp fine salt

Before you cook

• Strip the kernels from the corn cobs and keep the bare cobs.
• Slice the bread, carrots and plantain and dice the potatoes.
• Chop the tomatoes, onion and garlic.
• Crumble the cheese and rinse the capers.

Steps

1. Put the bare corn cobs in a pan with the stock, the cinnamon stick and half the corn kernels.
2. Simmer the stock for 25 minutes, then lift out the cobs and the cinnamon.
3. Lower the eggs into boiling water and cook them for 9 minutes, then cool, peel and slice them.
4. Heat 60 ml of the olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat.
5. Fry the bread slices in batches for 90 seconds a side, until golden and crisp, then drain them on kitchen paper.
6. Fry the plantain slices in the same pan for 2 minutes a side, until caramelised at the edges, then lift them out.
7. Toast the almonds in the pan for 2 minutes, until pale gold, then lift them out.
8. Add the remaining oil and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes, until soft.
9. Stir in the tomatoes, thyme and oregano and cook for 8 minutes, until jammy.
10. Add the carrots, potatoes, green beans, peas and the remaining corn kernels with 300 ml of the corn stock.
11. Simmer the vegetables for 12 minutes, until the potato is just tender.
12. Crush the saffron between your fingers into the rest of the stock and season it with the salt.
13. Heat the oven to 190C fan.
14. Lay half the fried bread across the base of a deep ovenproof dish.
15. Spoon over half the vegetables, then scatter half the raisins, olives, capers, almonds, plantain and egg slices.
16. Build a second layer with the remaining bread, vegetables and garnishes.
17. Ladle the saffron stock slowly over the whole dish until the bread is soaked but the top slices still stand proud.
18. Scatter the crumbled cheese over the top.
19. Bake for 20 minutes, until the surface is crusted and the broth bubbles at the edges.
20. Rest it for 5 minutes before serving in shallow bowls.