Recipe for summer soups with figs: a fresh dish with local and seasonal produce

PalmaSummer stretches out like a heavy shadow. There is no conversation that does not begin with the heaviness of these months, the difficulty of enduring the high temperature, and how the humidity has clung to the skin like a heavy fabric. They say that next year they will be even higher and we breathe deeply while we think about how we will be able to endure it. But we will adapt to it, for survival, as we have adapted to what the land gave us, to the changes in the landscape, to the loss.

Soups are one of the great riches we possess. One of the best examples of adaptation and utilization in our gastronomy. The action is as simple as putting into an earthenware pot what the land provides, taking advantage of bread left over from days past, and turning humble ingredients into a complete, tasty, and comforting dish. The thin slices are arranged in layers and soaked in the broth left by the vegetables, until they acquire a tender and juicy texture. The recipe, however, is not determined by an immutable list of ingredients. Soups change with the seasons. Cabbage, cauliflower, chard, spinach, artichokes, peas, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, and other vegetables can go in and out of the earthenware pot depending on the moment.

Making use of bread

Using leftover bread in soups is no exception within the gastronomy of the Islands. In Menorca, the "oliaigua" starts from a humble preparation of vegetables, water, oil, and bread. The dry bread is added at the time of eating and turns a simple soup into a more consistent dish. In the Pityusic Islands, the "amanida pagesa" also recovers bread and combines it with potato, tomato, pepper, onion, and other ingredients from the garden. These are different recipes, but all share the same intention: to give a new life to a food and combine it with what the land offers at any given moment. This culture of using leftover bread extends throughout the Mediterranean. The panzanella from Italy combines stale bread with tomato, onion, herbs, and oil; the Tuscan acquacotta incorporates bread into a rustic vegetable soup, and in Andalusia, bread is essential in preparations like salmorejo and ajoblanco. These are not identical recipes nor do they necessarily have a common origin, but they share the same response to similar conditions: hard bread, seasonal products, and the ability to transform what is available into a nutritious dish.

Soups have a peculiarity that makes them special. Here, bread is not a complement or a secondary element: it is the base upon which the dish is built and what gives it structure. In addition to seasonal garden products, we can enrich them with fish stock, meat, botifarró, and sobrassada. Summer soups are especially interesting because they move away from the winter image of those served in restaurants. They are simple and, at the same time, extraordinarily diverse. In many, we find a common ingredient, the potato or sweet potato, accompanied by other seasonal products, such as spring onions, peppers, and eggplants. But fruits can also appear in them. The apricot is documented in recipes from Sóller collected by Antoni Tugores in Memòria de la cuina mallorquina (2004), and figs appear in the book by Felip Munar De la figuera a la taula (1999). Fruit, with its sweetness, thus introduces a contrast that may seem unexpected. The treatment of vegetables is also revealing. Eggplant and pepper can be incorporated into the sofrito or cooked separately, roasted or fried, and added later, when the vegetables are placed on top of the soups.

Today's recipe is a variant of the summer soups collected in Voleu sopes. Homenatge a la intimitat, by Maria Contestí and Antoni Contestí (2017). I have incorporated the figs following the proposal by Felip Munar.