Gazpacho Soup

The key to a really good gazpacho is burstingly ripe tomatoes, a good-quality sherry vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil and a decent amount of salt.

Ingredients (serves 6)

1 kg ripe tomatoes (about 10 roma tomatoes)

100g stale bread, crust removed and soaked in water

1/2 a continental cucumber

1 small or 1/2 a red capsicum

1 clove garlic

1/2 a chilli

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

Salt and pepper

Tabasco sauce to taste (optional)

Peel the tomatoes by:

score the bottom of each tomato
blanch them in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, then refresh them in cold water.
The skin should be super easy to peel off (discard it to your compost bin).

Roughly chop the peeled tomatoes.
Squeeze the water from the bread.
Place cucumber, capsicum, garlic, chilli and bread in a processor and blend until smooth.
Add olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste then refrigerate until chilled.

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