5 FACTS ABOUT GAZPACHO

1 Gazpacho is a cold raw vegetable soup from southern Spain. The main ingredients are tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, garlic olive oil, and usually breadcrumbs or garlic croutons. 2 It should be drunk slightly chilled, but not iced. There should no need to supplement it with a drink, unless you really want to savour it with a glass of dry sherry. 3 Rumor has it that before leaving on his first voyage, Christopher Columbus loaded his ships up with barrels of this old mixture.

4 Gazpacho is traditionally made in a mortar and the bread is ideal when it is about a week old.

5 The bread and vegetable mixture is pounded to a paste and then you begin to add the tomatoes, then the olive oil, and finally the vinegar, tasting all the time to make sure you’ve got it right. The tomatoes should always go through a sieve so there are no seeds in the finished dish.