gazpacho soup

Ever since Lista sent me her recipe for Gazpacho dip, I've been longing for thick Gazpacho soup and a Spanish plaza to enjoy it in. Regretfully, my neighbourhood is distinctly lacking in the Spanish piazza department, but I've been on the hunt for a decent recipe for it and, because last night was a kind of special occasion, I decided time was ripe to give it a go.

The special nature of the occasion was due to the fact that is was the last night I will ever have to ring up my best friend Susanna on the cuff and ask her round for dinner. She's moving to Germany on Friday to at long last finish the long-distance part of her five-year long-distance relationship with her partner, Ralf. She's been living in London for the last year doing her MA. By some lovely fluke she wound up taking a flat just ten minutes from me and it's been wonderful having her so near. I'm happier than I have words that she and Ralf are finally going to be permanently in the same country, but I don't know what I'm going to do without her. In any case, last night was for celebration and this is a particularly celebratory dish.

I used bits and pieces from several recipes, but in the end I was stuck using what I had rather than what they called for, so this is my version. It went down rather well.

 ingredients:

4--5 1-inch-thick slices sourdough bread (or a day-old rustic loaf)
3 pounds ripes tomatoes (not: NOT Beefsteak tomatoes, vine tomatoes preferable)
1 whole cucumber
1 medium green bell pepper
1 medium red bell pepper
1 medium onion (red or yellow, I used yellow but I rather wish I'd used red)
1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp. sherry
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 large garlic cloves
ground cumin
sea salt
black pepper

method:

This is the messy bit, it's a bit of lovely. Tear up the bread, crust and all, into small pieces and place in a large bowl. Halve each tomato and squeeze out the innards over top (keeping the fleshy part aside to use for later), then work them into the bread with your fingers. Add the sherry and vinegar and leave it to soak. If you don't have sherry, you could probably just use the balsamic vinegar with a couple of tablespoons of wine instead.

Mince the garlic and add it to the bowl, with a generous pinch of cumin and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Stir a few times to make sure it's incorporated. I don't have a proper big blender, so I used my hand-held to blend it as smooth as I could get it.

Dice the remains of tomato, cucumbers, red and green peppers, and onion into medium pieces and add to the bowl. Stir in with about 2 teaspoons (10 ml) to a tablespoon (15 ml) of salt, and leave for 15 minutes.

If you're using a hand blander, add the olive oil and then blend until the whole batch is as smooth as you can get it. If you're using a food processor, work the vegetables into the tomato-bread mixture in three batches, adding a bit of olive oil in at a time until it's all incorporated. You really want this to be as smooth and liquidous as possible, so keep blending even when it looks pretty well done. Then add salt and pepper to taste.

Most gazpacho recipes suggest you pass the soup through a sieve, pressing on it with a wooden spoon to get out all the liquid, but I rather think that's a bit of a waste. What happens to the rest of it? The best gazpacho I ever had was in a small village outside Barcelona; it was more pulped veggie than soup, and it was thick and creamy because of it. Delicious! Far better than the limp thin cold broth I wound up with elsewhere. I reckon if you sieve it, you miss out on all that thick, pulpy loveliness. So, I just skipped straight to chilling it in the refrigerator.

Let it chill for at least an hour and a half before serving -- it's even better if you can let it sit for a good few hours, but never mind if you don't have time to wait for it. Ladle into a large wine glass or glass bowls. Garnish with a small pool of olive oil in the centre topped with a sprig of coriander, and serve with vast quantities of fresh baguette and butter.

Be aware that this recipe makes enough to feed a small army. To avoid leftovers, I would suggest doing what I didn't and inviting ten people and making some roast potatoes and some corn on the cob to round it off. I also might suggest adding half a ripe avocado and a handful of coriander. I added some avo and coriander to some of the leftovers today for my lunch and it was scrumptious!

Comments

['Lista]

First, that looks scrumptious. Second, hey, I'm famous! I've been mentioned on the Erqsomeblog! Third, I finally did your tag!