“I’m just here for the gazpacho”

Still cold and windy for Easter, but the sun is shining brightly, finally.

So easy and a nice fresh appetizer for our Easter dinner especially when I whiz it all up in the seldom used Nutri NutriBullet saving a bit of tomato, cucumber, and herbs to top it all off along with a couple of grilled shrimp…so not a classic Easter appetizer, but it works for us for our not so traditional Easter dinner crab cakes.

I used and slightly adapted a José Andreas recipe, “Patricia’s Gazpacho (Gazpacho al estilo de Patricia)”

With mostly sweet yellow cherry tomatoes and just 1 big fat heirloom tomato, the gazpacho was just the right amount for the two of us and a bit left over for tomorrow’s lunch. I added a pinch of smoked paprika and ended up garnishing it with some chopped veggies and a bit of fresh guacamole as shown above in a previous shooter style. José Andreasnrecipe slightly adapted…

For the Gazpacho – serves 4

2 pounds ripe red tomatoes (about 10 plum tomatoes), today a blend of yellow and red

8 ounces cucumber (about 1 cucumber)

3 ounces green pepper (about 1/2 bell pepper)

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1 garlic clove, peeled

3/4 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

For the Garnish

1 tablespoon Spanish extra-virgin olive oil

1 slice of rustic white bread

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8 plum tomatoes, with the seeds prepared as “fillets”

12 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

4 pearl onions, pulled apart into segments

2 tablespoons Spanish extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Sea salt to taste

4 chives, cut into 1-inch-long pieces

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut out and discard the core at the top of the tomatoes, and chop the tomatoes roughly into quarters. Place in the blender.

2. Peel the cucumber and cut it into chunks. Add the tomatoes to the blender. Cut the pepper in half, and remove the core along with the seeds. Again, chop into large pieces and place in the blender.

3. Add the garlic and sherry vinegar to the vegetables and blend until the mixture becomes a thick liquid. At this point, the red tomatoes will turn a wonderful pink color. Taste for acidity. This will vary with the sweetness of the tomatoes. If it’s not balanced enough, add a little more vinegar. Add the olive oil and season with salt to taste. Re-blend, then pour the gazpacho through a strainer into a pitcher. Place in the fridge to cool for at least half an hour.

4. While the gazpacho is chilling, prepare the garnish. In a small pan, heat the olive oil over a medium-high flame and fry the bread until golden, about 2 minutes. Break into small pieces to form croutons and set aside.

5. To serve, place in each bowl 4 croutons, 2 “fillets” of tomato seeds, 4 cherry tomato halves, 3 cucumber cubes, and 3 onion segments. Add a few drops of olive oil to each onion segment and drizzle a little more oil around the bowl. Add a few drops of vinegar to each cucumber cube and drizzle a little more around the bowl. Sprinkle sea salt on the tomatoes, and sprinkle the chives across the bowl. Serve when the gazpacho is refreshingly chilled.

link below…
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/aspen-2005-patricias-gazpacho-gazpacho-al-estilo-de-patricia

Happy Easter everyone…