Lentil Purée

History

La Mejor Cocinera: Recetas de Cocina is a Spanish home-cookery book published in Madrid under the imprint of Editorial Saturnino Calleja. The firm's founder, Saturnino Calleja Fernández (1855–1915), was its publisher and editor rather than the author, and no individual author is attributed to the recipes. The earliest firmly located editions date to roughly 1921–1923. Within it, "Puré de lentejas" is one of a family of legume and vegetable purées. As printed, the recipe sets lentils to cook in cold water, salts them once they begin to soften, then adds a sofrito of garlic, onion and tomato fried in a pan; the mixture is simmered briefly and passed through a sieve "como los otros" — like the book's other purées — before serving. Beyond the recipe as printed, the sources consulted do not document a specific origin, inventor, region, date of creation, or social context for this particular lentil purée.

Ingredients

• lentils
• water
• salt
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 onion
• 1 tomato

Instructions

1. Place lentils in a pot with cold water and bring to a boil. When they begin to soften, add salt and continue cooking. In a pan, fry the garlic, onion, and tomato together. Add this sofrito (fried aromatics) to the lentils and let everything simmer briefly. Pass the mixture through a sieve or food mill, as is done with other purées of this type, and serve.