If you cook a lot, you’ve probably made gazpacho before. Maybe you’ve even made it dozens of times. But how often has it blown you away?
Just as I thought.
At the height of tomato season, it seems the right moment to give the perennially popular cold soup — whose birthplace is southern Spain — a fresh look.
The soup’s roots go back a long way: It was born sometime between the 7th and 13th centuries (depending on who you ask). In any case, it predates the arrival of tomatoes in Europe, which may come as a surprise to anyone who knows gazpacho as a cold tomato soup with cucumbers and peppers thrown in.
In fact, gazpacho was originally a cold soup of pounded bread, garlic and salt with olive oil and vinegar. Some of those ingredients are often forgotten by modern American cooks, which is one of the many reasons gazpacho so often falls flat. Bread is essential for body, garlic for a little bite and vinegar for zing. Olive oil adds silkiness and its own fruity personality.