Andalusian style gazpacho - from our August dinner

Buongiorno,
here's Lina's recipe for the gazpacho she made at our August group dinner. After receiving quite a few requests for it, she kindly wrote it down for us.
Thank you, Lina.
Enjoy,
Marco Flavio

Andalusian Style Gazpacho         

Makes four, 1 cup servings

2* cloves garlic, sliced (see note below)
1 large green or red bell pepper, seeded and roughly chopped (I used a combination)
A piece of a red jalapeño chile, seeded (to taste)
1 and a 1/2 lbs. of very ripe, red tomatoes with thin skins; juicy salad tomatoes work best for gazpacho, cored and cut into large chunks. If you use thick-skinned tomatoes, blanch & peel them.
3 inch piece baguette sliced and allowed to dry out overnight (or you can dry bread in a 250º oven)
1/2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp sherry vinegar; more to taste
2 tsp. kosher salt; more to taste
A dash or two of Tabasco, to taste
Ground black pepper, optional (I did not add any)

Place garlic, peppers, tomatoes, bread, olive oil, sherry, and salt in a food processor. Pulse a few times until the bread breaks up, then process until the mixture is as smooth as possible, about 3 – 5 minutes. Taste, add Tabasco if desired, and possibly more vinegar, salt, or garlic. You may also add a little water. Chill thoroughly, or serve over ice cubes.

Garnish:
1 cup peeled, finely chopped Japanese cucumber or conventional cucumber, seeded and 1cup diced onion (sweet variety preferred)
Fresh ground black pepper
You can also garnish with fresh corn kernels, shrimp, crab, lobster…..

*It is easy to disrupt the balance of flavors by using too much raw garlic; you can always add more after tasting. Some people like to blanch or toast the garlic first.

Comments

[Joanna]

So many recipes for gazpacho, this one looks good. Best to make it in advance and chill it, so you don't have to use ice cubes, which tend to make it watery

Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com