With the warmer summer temperatures, my wife Sharon and I are always happy to have an excuse to avoid firing up our stove. And there are few better excuses than sitting down to a good gazpacho made from ripe tomatoes.
I was surprised to learn this popular Spanish soup has Arab roots. It originated from the Arabs who occupied a big chunk of Spain from the 8th to the 13th centuries, according to renowned food expert Alan Davidson in his excellent tome, The Penguin Companion to Food (Penguin, 2002).
It’s evolved in a huge way since that time, when the basic ingredients were bread, olive oil, vinegar, salt and water. Today, gazpacho ranges in consistency from very liquid to nearly solid. And Davidson writes gazpacho may be served hot during the winter.
Today’s most popular version hails from southern Spain, in Andalusia. The key ingredients are tomato, cucumber and garlic.
We tracked down a delicious gazpacho recipe in a cookbook produced by our friends at the Culinary Institute of America: Book of Soups by The Culinary Institute of America (Lebhar-Friedman Books, 2001). An updated version, the New Book of Soups, is scheduled to be released in early December.
Gazpacho will improve if you let it chill overnight in the fridge. But don’t let it go too long. The tomatoes, according to the cookbook, will begin to sour “very quickly” after that.
The cookbook also offers an excellent crouton recipe. We drizzled some of our Miller’s Blend extra virgin olive oil over the croutons, once we had sprinkled them atop our soup.
If you find yourself making gazpacho when you don’t have access to ripe tomatoes, we found that a 28-ounce can of tomatoes makes a good substitute.
Bon appétit,
Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch
