Whisk Wednesdays—Gaspacho (Gazpacho)

For such a simple recipe, Gazpacho has a lot of history dating back to the Middle Ages in Andalucia.

An Iberian peasant woman in the Andalucian region in southern Spain, soaks her days-old homemade bread in some water in the earthenware mortar that her mother used. Pounding the sun-warmed tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, green bell peppers and garlic gathered from the garden earlier in the day with her pestle, she brings the mixture to a muddled, rather chunky consistency. Finally, she moistens her mixture with olive oil, vinegar and water.

The name gazpacho means "soaked bread" and is essentially a cold liquid salad, says Clifford A. Wright in his book Mediterranean Vegetables.

This rustic, simple dish is perfect when you don't want to cook. You can serve it as a soup or as a sauce over chicken or fish. Pull out your mortar and pestle (and muscles) or plug in the food processor and give it a try with fresh vegetables from your garden! Get creative by adding crabmeat, shrimp, avocado or twist it into a fruity version with peaches.

"These days, evidently, anything cold with tomato can be called gazpacho."
— Joseph Byrd in The North Coast Journal

Recipe

Serves 6

2½ ounces fresh white bread, crusts removed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (another recommendation is Sherry vinegar)
2 cloves garlic
¾ English cucumber, unpeeled and roughly chopped
1 onion
½ green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
3½ pound ripe tomatoes, quartered and seeded
½ cup olive oil

For the Garnish:
¼ English cucumber, unpeeled
½ green bell pepper
4 slices bread, crusts removed, toasted
You can find the recipe for Gaspacho (Gazpacho) in the book Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

To let the flavors build, it's best to let the soup sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Tasting Notes
Chunky or smooth, this soup is refreshing on a hot day. The bite from the raw onions and garlic, the sweetness from the garden-fresh tomatoes and the hint of acid from the vinegar rounded out with a pinch of salt make this soup a palate pleaser.

"Gazpacho is a dish of rustic shepherds, or those who have nothing else to eat, because it is made up of garlic, vinegar, bread and water."
— Joseph Byrd in The North Coast Journal

My Bucket List
• Visit Andalusia and enjoy a bowl of Gazpacho by the sea.

Next Class
• Coquelets sur Canapés (Roast Squab Chickens with Chicken Liver Canapés and Mushrooms) page 246 in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I by Julia Child and Pommes Pont Neuf (Pont Neuf Potatoes) page 253 {Substitute straw potatoes for pont neuf, if desired.} (post on Wednesday, August 26, 2009)

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,489.66 + $7.89 = $1,497.55
($1.32 per serving)

Butter used so far: 12 pounds, 22.5 tablespoons

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::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

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