The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Celebrate ripe tomatoes with gazpacho
Only the best and ripest garden-grown tomatoes will do for this dish, so August is the best time for it.
Friends and family begin asking for my gazpacho around April, when making the tomato-based cold soup is out of the question.
Only the best and ripest garden-grown tomatoes will do for this dish, so August is the best time not only to make it but to consume it. Tomatoes need hot summer nights to become the best they can be, and the soup is just perfect to have on a hot summer night.
I don’t know why I can count on requests for gazpacho, considering it is somewhat different every time I make it. I use a variety of tomatoes and borrow tips from various recipes. Gazpacho originates in the south of Spain, and even in that country, it varies from region to region — and probably from household to household.
I imagine that the soil in which the tomatoes are grown makes a difference in the end result.
The best gazpacho is labor-intensive, with a combination of tomatoes, peppers, scallions and cucumbers that need to be peeled, seeded and diced before being put through a food processor. I always start in the morning to give my creation a couple of hours to chill before serving. It
must be served cold. I usually will make it only once in the summer, so it’s worth a celebration when it’s ready. I served this year’s version last week when I gathered with a small group to celebrate our friend Margie’s birthday. I poured a cold, dry rose to drink with it.
One tip that made this year’s gazpacho really good came from one of my favorite cookbook authors, Sarah Leah Chase. Just as cooks often do in Spain, Chase incorporates bread into her gazpacho. Although my preparation deviated from hers in several ways, she deserves the credit for the way the bread is used.
Her Que Sera Gazpacho recipe calls for making a paste of three slices of fresh homemade bread, five cloves of garlic and three tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice blended together in a food processor. When mixed with the other ingredients, this garlicky paste makes a real difference in the end result — a hearty cold soup that’s simply delicious.
Peeling tomatoes before they are seeded and diced is easy once you devise a process. I put a pot of water on to boil, fill another bowl of water with ice and use the tip of a sharp knife to incise an X in the bottom of each tomato. The tomatoes are quickly dipped in the boiling water for about 15 seconds, scooped out and placed in the ice water. After their hot-then-cold bath, they will peel easily from the X in the bottom to their tops.
Once they’re peeled, remove the top, where the tomato leaves were, and slice the tomatoes in half and then in quarters. Run your finger through the inside of the tomatoes to squeeze out the seeds. Place on a paper towel to drain for a few minutes before cutting into a one-fourth-inch dice. The cucumbers and peppers also need to be cut into a one-fourth-inch dice before being pureed.
Because the tomatoes vary in their juiciness, I always have a big bottle of tomato or V8 juice on hand to add to the soup if needed. I puree the vegetables a few cups at a time, varying the thickness and chunkiness of the puree. I like my gazpacho to have some texture, but in many places in Spain, it’s pureed to a smooth, silky drink that can be drunk through a straw.