Gazpacho

Mon, 6 August 2018

(Makes 6 generous bowls or 12 smaller canape sized cups)

Ingredients:

100g ciabatta bread

700g best quality tomatoes you can find

1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped roughly

1 cucumber, peeled

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

150ml extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp sherry vinegar or cider vinegar

3 Spring Onions, roughly chopped

50 mls cold water

Salt & Pepper to taste

A few fresh Basil leaves

Optional: 2 tsp sugar

Garnish- save a small amount of pepper, basil and spring onion and dice very finely "brunoise"

 

Method:

1.  Score the tomatoes in a criss cross shape at the bottom and put them in a bowl.

2.  Pour boiling water over them; after a minute or two the skins will loosen and slip off very easily.

3.  Place the tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, bread, crushed garlic and chopped pepper in a bowl adding a seasoning of salt and pepper, the basil, oil, water and red wine wine vinegar.

4.  Leave to macerate for 30mins. If your tomatoes are not very sweet, add a teaspoon of sugar to this mixture.

5.  Blend everything at top speed until the soup is absolutely smooth. You can pour it through a sieve if you want to remove any lumps but this is totally optional if you can't be bothered with extra work!

6.  Taste to check the seasoning and pour the soup into a large jug and chill for at least 30 mins. It should be served very cold, so the longer you leave it, the better. The flavour also intensifies over time so the longer, the better!

7.  Garnish with a little finely diced spring onion, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Enjoy!