Tomato Soup with Trahana

Made with the traditional eastern Mediterranean “pasta,” this soup used to be the quintessence of comforting peasant winter dinner fare. Pounded wheat grains are combined with yogurt or soured milk and left to ferment; the longer the fermentation, the tangier and more pungent the “pasta.” The basic soup I suggest here is made with the milder, homemade trahana or ksinohondros. It is based on the soup I remember from my childhood, which my mother served topped with olive oil–fri