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Sopa de queso
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Sopa de queso

Cheese and corn soup

In Nicaragua, the Thursday and Friday of Holy Week mean sopa de queso, a meatless soup of small rings made from corn dough and salty cheese, fried and floated in a tomato and sweet-pepper broth enriched with milk. Unlike Honduran capirotadas, Nicaraguan cooks shape the dough into little rings (rosquillas) and thicken the broth with a spoonful of masa, so it is silky and pale orange. Nicaraguan queso seco and cuajada are traditionally made with animal rennet; a vegetarian feta or vegetarian hard cheese works well. The usual mistake is boiling the soup after the milk goes in, which makes it curdle. Chef's tip: a few mint leaves stirred in at the end are how many Masaya families finish it.

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