Fabio takes tomatoes cold for his ultimate Gazpacho, a phenomenally deep-flavored, chilled soup. What's the secret to making soup this good anytime of year? Hint: You don't really need fresh tomatoes!
Tips:
- Use canned tomatoes for extra flavor and great texture without cooking.
- De-seed hot peppers to control the heat.
- Chill thoroughly to optimize the blending of flavors: since you're not cooking anything, the veggies need time to react to the vinegar, salt, and each other.
- Eat Fresh: gazpacho may not be cooked, but the vinegar will react in such a way that the soup will get "fizzy" and go bad after just a few days.
- Batch-cooking: Gazpacho that's made without bread, like this one, is low in fat and can be easily frozen!
The Perfect Summer SoupCold Gazpacho
Recipe by Fabio Vivani
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients:
1 quart tomato juice
2 red bell peppers
1 green jalapeno
1 large English cucumber
20 leaves of fresh basil
pinch salt
3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
6 canned plum tomatoes
additional basil leaves for garnish
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Method:
Pour tomato juice into a jar blender.
Slice one red pepper, the entire jalepeno, and half of the cucumber, and add to blender.
Add basil leaves, pinch of salt, and red wine vinegar.
Slice three of the canned plum tomatoes, and add to blender.
Puree until no chunks remain.
Transfer soup to a bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until ready to serve.
To serve, ladle soup into bowls.
Dice the remaining red bell pepper, cucumber, and plum tomatoes.
Chop basil for garnish.
Generously garnish each bowl with diced tomatoes, cucumber, basil, and red peppers.
Drizzle with olive oil, and garnish with salt and pepper to taste.
MANGIA!