My Family Recipe
By Miguel Mendez
There are many times in one’s life when they are asked the common getting to know you question, what is your favorite food? Whether it be something you’re asked by someone that you just started dating or a question posed by the professor of Food as Communication, I have always said macaroni and cheese. While it is true that macaroni and cheese is my favorite food, another that I equally love is sopa roja. However, it is a dish that I hardly ever mention because I am aware that knowledge of its existence is limited to my family. Another reason that I don’t mention it is because up until now I didn’t know much about it other than it was a dish that my grandmother made. Sopa roja is Spanish for red soup, it was the name that my brothers and I gave it when we were around four or five years old. It is a simple name, but I feel like the simplicity really represents what the dish is all about.
As I spoke with my grandmother, Maria Natividad Ibarra de Mendez, or as we call her, Mama Nati, I was able to learn a lot, not only about the dish but also about our family history. Initially, whenever I would think of sopa roja my grandmother would always come to mind. It was a dish that I came to associate with her since I was young because she was the only person who I would see making it. It would be the dish that I would come to expect to eat whenever she came to the United States to visit from Mexico. So in my eyes, the dish was something that was ordinary, a typical dish with little significance other than it was delicious. I came to learn, however, that the dish was something that my grandmother hardly ever made. It was only until our generation came along that she began to make it again.
When my grandmother first began making the dish she was a young mother of six children, four boys, and two girls. She experimented and ended up creating what we now know as sopa roja about 50 years ago. While my grandmother is an amazing cook and can make many traditional Mexican dishes, what made sopa roja different was its simplicity. It did not require any type of protein so it was a lot cheaper to make than other dishes. Sopa roja is a dish that requires a few ingredients and they are usually things that people already have in their fridge to begin with. Up until now, I had always assumed that the dish was the same back then as it was today. I came to find out that the cheese in the recipe was something that back then was a luxury to them. So this dish exemplified the humble beginning of my family history. As her children grew up and went off to college, for a time, it became a dish that was seldom made. Perhaps because it was associated with a time when they had very little.
There are many times in one’s life when they are asked the common getting to know you question, what is your favorite food? Whether it be something you’re asked by someone that you just started dating or a question posed by the professor of Food as Communication, I have always said macaroni and cheese. While it is true that macaroni and cheese is my favorite food, another that I equally love is sopa roja. However, it is a dish that I hardly ever mention because I am aware that knowledge of its existence is limited to my family. Another reason that I don’t mention it is because up until now I didn’t know much about it other than it was a dish that my grandmother made. Sopa roja is Spanish for red soup, it was the name that my brothers and I gave it when we were around four or five years old. It is a simple name, but I feel like the simplicity really represents what the dish is all about.
As I spoke with my grandmother, Maria Natividad Ibarra de Mendez, or as we call her, Mama Nati, I was able to learn a lot, not only about the dish but also about our family history. Initially, whenever I would think of sopa roja my grandmother would always come to mind. It was a dish that I came to associate with her since I was young because she was the only person who I would see making it. It would be the dish that I would come to expect to eat whenever she came to the United States to visit from Mexico. So in my eyes, the dish was something that was ordinary, a typical dish with little significance other than it was delicious. I came to learn, however, that the dish was something that my grandmother hardly ever made. It was only until our generation came along that she began to make it again.
When my grandmother first began making the dish she was a young mother of six children, four boys, and two girls. She experimented and ended up creating what we now know as sopa roja about 50 years ago. While my grandmother is an amazing cook and can make many traditional Mexican dishes, what made sopa roja different was its simplicity. It did not require any type of protein so it was a lot cheaper to make than other dishes. Sopa roja is a dish that requires a few ingredients and they are usually things that people already have in their fridge to begin with. Up until now, I had always assumed that the dish was the same back then as it was today. I came to find out that the cheese in the recipe was something that back then was a luxury to them. So this dish exemplified the humble beginning of my family history. As her children grew up and went off to college, for a time, it became a dish that was seldom made. Perhaps because it was associated with a time when they had very little.
After time passed and her children had their own kids, my grandmother reintroduced the dish to the family during those few times a year where we would all come together. It was during one of those family get-togethers that I was first introduced to sopa roja. I remember having it as a side dish to the main meat course. I was only served a little of it, almost as if it was an afterthought. I also noticed that not much of it was made since not many people in my family were eating it. That was fine for me because it was all I that ate during that get-together. After that event, my grandmother remembers having to make double the amount whenever she knew that I was coming over.
There was a time that I moved away from San Antonio and I didn’t see my grandmother. Years passed and I even forgot all about sopa roja, but luckily my grandmother never stopped making it after she noticed that there was a renewed interest in the dish. So when I came back to San Antonio and had it again, it was almost as if I had found something that I didn’t even know was missing. While it may seem a little strange that I could love a dish so much, I believe it is because I came to associate it with my grandmother. I was thirteen around the time that I came to rediscover my love for sopa roja. I even had my mother get the recipe from my grandmother in order to ensure that I would never have to go extended periods of time without it.
When I heard about having to write about a family recipe, my mind immediately thought of sopa roja. Having now learned more about the dish, it has given me a greater appreciation not only for my grandmother but also for my family history. To go from a time where this dish would be considered a luxury to now where it is commonplace shows the growth that my family has gone through. So without further ado, I now present to you my family recipe of sopa roja. (I am not really sure how many portions this recipe makes since when it comes to this dish I forget all about what is the proper amount)
There was a time that I moved away from San Antonio and I didn’t see my grandmother. Years passed and I even forgot all about sopa roja, but luckily my grandmother never stopped making it after she noticed that there was a renewed interest in the dish. So when I came back to San Antonio and had it again, it was almost as if I had found something that I didn’t even know was missing. While it may seem a little strange that I could love a dish so much, I believe it is because I came to associate it with my grandmother. I was thirteen around the time that I came to rediscover my love for sopa roja. I even had my mother get the recipe from my grandmother in order to ensure that I would never have to go extended periods of time without it.
When I heard about having to write about a family recipe, my mind immediately thought of sopa roja. Having now learned more about the dish, it has given me a greater appreciation not only for my grandmother but also for my family history. To go from a time where this dish would be considered a luxury to now where it is commonplace shows the growth that my family has gone through. So without further ado, I now present to you my family recipe of sopa roja. (I am not really sure how many portions this recipe makes since when it comes to this dish I forget all about what is the proper amount)
Ingredients
- 3 packages of macarron pasta
- 9 roma tomatoes
- 1 medium sizes onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 tbsp. of tomato bouillon (with chicken flavor)
- Canola oil (original recipe calls for lard)
- Queso Quesadilla (mozzarella cheese)
- Salt
Instructions
- Place water to boil and add a bit of oil and salt into the water.
- While the water is coming to a boil you can begin making the sauce for the dish.
- Wash the tomatoes and cut them into four pieces and place them into the blender.
- Peel the onion and cut into four pieces, place into the blender.
- Peel the clove of garlic and place into the blender.
- Add the tomato bouillon into the blender.
- Blend the ingredients together until it becomes a sauce.
- By now the water should be boiling so you may add the pasta.
- Place a little bit of oil in a pan and when it is heated up you can now add the blended sauce into the pan. Cover the sauce and allow it to cook for about five minutes on low heat.
- By now the pasta should be cooked and you can now strain it and add it into the pan where the sauce has been cooking.
- Mix sauce well with the pasta and remove it from the heat source.
- Cut the cheese into rectangles and place them into the pasta.
- Cover the pasta and allow the heat to melt the cheese.
- The dish is now complete. Enjoy.