Good Food

Gazpacho

Chef Viggo Andersen

When I went to Malaga in Andalusia to visit a good friend in the late 1980s, I expected a soft southern environment of Spain. But I was blinded by the brightness and the sun-swollen air laden with the scents of violent flowers, of fish frying in oil, of olives, tomatoes, bitter orange and bitter lemon; of cinnamon and cloves, the tang of sea animals mixed with the tar of boats and the burned out-of-doors smell of the earth itself.

One of the highlights on Andalusian cuisine is the wonderful gazpacho.

In the sun-steeped cities of Andalusia food must be so light and easily digestible as to seem hardly food at all. Liquid should be thirst quenching, and it should contain salt to replace the salt lost through the pores of the skin.

Gazpacho is typical of the Andalusian ability to serve food that is more a product of the cook's gracia, his graceful cleverness or wit, than the ingredients he uses. For Andalusian food, like Andalusian high spirit, does not wilt under the southern sun. It seems a conglomeration of nothing.

"A little of this and a little of that," will be the answer if you ask what it contains, for Andalusian dishes, like Andalusian jokes, are not intended to bear solemn scrutiny. You are meant to enjoy the result without knowing why. "What else would you eat?" the cook would ask.

Before we make this wonderful gazpacho I have to tell you that different towns make different versions of this dish ranging from Jerez to Malaga where gazpacho is called ajo blanco con uvas and has an almond base. There is even a hot, winter gazpacho called simply ajo or garlic, which is a kind of dried bread soup.

Gazpacho is not by any means a new dish; it is mentioned in Greek and Roman literature as a "drinkable food," and references to it appear in both the Old and New Testaments.

Gazpacho (Cold salad soup)

Serves 6 to 8

Soup Ingredients

2 medium cucumbers, peeled and chopped

5 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 medium green pepper, seeded and chopped

2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

5 oz crumbled French bread, trimmed of crust

1 1/2 pint of cold water

3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar

3 teaspoons salt

2 1/2 teaspoons tomato puree

3 tablespoons olive oil

Garnish

1 1/2 oz quarter inch bread cubes, trimmed of crust

2 oz finely chopped onions

2 oz peeled and finely chopped cucumbers

4 oz finely chopped green pepper

Put all the ingredients for the soup into a blender, except for the tomato puree and olive oil. Blend on high speed until reduced to a smooth puree. Pour the puree into a bowl and beat in the olive oil and tomato puree with a whisk.

Cover the bowl with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours, until thoroughly chilled. Just before serving, whisk or stir the soup lightly to recombine it. Then ladle it into a large chilled tureen or individual soup plates.

Accompany the gazpacho with the bread cubes and vegetable garnishes presented in separate serving bowls to be added to the soup at the discretion of each diner.

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