The classic, chilled Spanish soup, made in minutes, a great starter for a summer dinner in the garden.

This is great for a summer starter or as part of an apéritif when served in small verrines and can be decorated as you like, with the addition of chopped avocado or cucumber.

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Level : Easy

Preparation time : 15 minutes

Refrigeration : 3 hours

Serves 6 as an apéritif or 4 as a starter

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Ingredients :

8 ripe, medium tomatoes

3 sun-dried tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 red pepper – or 2 picquilo peppers

3 fresh green onions

1 litre of tomato juice

3 cl sherry vinegar

2 cl Cider vinegar

10cl good olive oil

1 bunch of chives

4 or 5 drops of Tabasco or chilli (to taste)

2 or 3 drops Worcestershire sauce

5 or 6 fresh basil leaves + 1 extra to decorate each serving

6 cherry tomatoes

100g Mozarella cheese

1/2 white baguette (stale is better for this recipe)

Fresh ground black pepper

Freshly ground sea salt

Optional 1 avocado peeled and finely chopped or 1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped

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Directions :

Roughly chop and seed the tomatoes, add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, the cloves of garlic, the chopped onions, the diced baguette the olive oil, the vinegar, tabasco and the red pepper – put in a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate for 3 hours.

I prefer to use bottled picquilo peppers which are tender and sweet. If you use a fresh red pepper, cook it on full power in a microwave for about 2 minutes, leave to cool slightly then peel the pepper – if it burns slightly this just adds to the flavour – as long as it doesn’t burn too much.

Put all of the ingredients into a liquidizer with the basil, the Worcestershire sauce, tomato juice and mix for about 2 minutes until smooth, season to taste.

Put the mixture into verrines (glasses) mix in the chopped chives and the cucumber or avocado if you wish.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, cut the Mozarella into cubes, the same diameter as the cherry tomatoes – thread the 1/2 tomato onto a cocktail stick followed by  a slice of Mozarella then another 1/2 cherry tomato – use this to decorate the glasses with a final basil leaf.

The gazpacho can be reserved in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

In really hot weather, I like to nestle the glasses of gazpacho in a Champagne bucket full of ice and serve with Grisini or grilled pain de campagne.

The Gazpacho goes well with a Côtes du Rhône Villages red (slightly chilled), A Tavel rosé, or a Saint Péray Rhône white.

Bon Appetit!

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