Gazpacho

Gazpacho is one of those classic dishes for which there are thousands of variations (white gazpacho, or melon gazpacho anyone?) and different recipes.  I had a delicious bowl of gazpacho with a vaguely Asian twist at a restaurant in Aruba called the Flying Fishbone (which is my absolute favorite restaurant in Aruba).  The gazpacho was nice and spicy, without tasting like I was drinking Tabasco or Worchestershire (which always reminds me of a bloody mary), and was served with two giant tempura prawns.  It was delicious.  After returning from Aruba and realizing that it was going to be a high of 92 degrees in NYC today, I figured gazpacho would be the perfect light dinner.  I refuse to make a fussy/fancy gazpacho where you peel and seed the tomatoes or blend all of the ingredients separately.  One of the most glorious things about gazpacho is that you can just throw everything in a food processor and at the touch of a button you have a wonderful, refreshing soup.  Well, first you have to refrigerate it for a few hours to let all of the flavors meld together, but we'll ignore that step for now.

This gazpacho is on the rustic side, with a little texture left.  Some people like to either process their gazpacho in their food processors until smooth, or if you're even fancier some people then pass the gazpacho through a chinois to make sure not even the smallest pieces of solids get through.  I don't want my gazpacho to be thick and chunky like salsa, but I want at least a little texture to it.  This gazpacho is also quite spicy.  It has a slow burn to it that builds slowly on your tongue, which I love.

Recipe after the jump!

Gazpacho

INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs. ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 English cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks

1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into chunks

1/2 small red onion, cut into chunks

2 tbsp Sherry vinegar

1 tbsp Tabasco  

2 tbsp evoo

s&p

In a food processor combine tomatoes, garlic, cucumber, red bell pepper, and onion.  Process to combine.  Add Sherry vinegar and Tabasco.  Pulse to combine.  With motor running, stream in evoo.  Season to taste with s&p.  Transfer gazpacho to a bowl, cover and refrigerate gazpacho to chill and allow flavors to combine, at least 2 hours.

To serve, ladle gazpacho into bowl.  If desired, garnish with toasted baguette croutons (chop baguette into cubes, toss with evoo, s&p, and crushed red pepper flakes, and then toast in a 375 degree F oven for 10 minutes), and finely diced yellow or red bell pepper, cucumber, and red onion. 

Serve chilled.