Gazpacho is a cool, refreshing, thick and delicious soup native to Andalusia, southern Spain. Over the centuries, the recipe has become widely known and found many variations.
The classic gazpacho recipe
Like any traditional dish with a century of history, the classic gazpacho recipe is hotly debated. While many agree that a simple village soup has a flexible list of ingredients, there is one sticking point: bread. Some supporters of traditional cuisine claim that it is he who is superfluous in the classic recipe and even call another dish - salmorejo, which, allegedly, will become gazpacho with bread. Well, connoisseurs of culinary have proven the erroneousness of this opinion, so feel free to take 100 grams of slightly stale white bread without a crust, and also:
- 1 kilogram of ripe juicy tomatoes;
- 2 sweet bell peppers (one red and one green);
- 1 medium short-fruited cucumber;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 150 ml of olive oil;
- 2 tablespoons of vinegar;
- salt.
Salmarechio is also a cold Spanish soup made from tomatoes, bread, garlic and vinegar. It is thicker and creamier as it contains more bread than tomatoes.
Soak stale bread for 15-20 minutes in cold boiled water. Cut the tomatoes into cubes. For peppers, cut the stalk, remove the jumpers and seeds, cut the pulp into cubes. Peel and chop the garlic. Remove the skin from the cucumber and also cut it into pieces.
Combine tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers in a bowl of a food processor. Squeeze out the excess liquid from the bread and put it along with the chopped garlic to the vegetables. Purée until smooth, season with salt and vinegar, rub the soup through a fine sieve and refrigerate. Traditionally, Spanish housewives made gazpacho by rubbing vegetables with a pestle in a mortar, but you don't have to follow this particular custom to get a "real" Spanish soup. Gazpacho is served garnished with chopped olives or a hard-boiled egg, slices of cucumber, bell peppers, chives and ham cubes, crunchy croutons or pesto, crab meat or shrimp, and chopped mint or parsley.
If you don't have time to chill the gazpacho, serve it with ice cubes.
Gazpacho variations
You can choose green "gazpacho" from unripe tomatoes or "golden" gazpacho from yellow cherry tomatoes, "white" gazpacho from cauliflower, "fruity" gazpacho from watermelons or grapes.
