Recipe: Gazpacho

I wrote a story for the paper about How to Throw a Mad Men Party, and I decided to take some of my own advice. Or rather, Irene did. She’s throwing the Mad Men party — I’m bringing the gazpacho. Here’s my favorite recipe.

First, get out your ingredients: tomatoes (natch), cucumber, peppers, onion, garlic:

You need 5 pounds of tomatoes:

Roughly chop all the vegetables and put them in the food processor:

Yes, skins and seeds and all:

Puree:

If you can add more during this batch, do so:

After it’s full, strain through a sieve:

You might have to do this in two or three batches:

Then whisk in your oil and vinegar:

I like to chill my gazpacho (and any other cold soups) in these plastic Tupperware beverage pitchers. They take up less room and are easier to pour out of when you’re serving.

A funnel helps:

Best soup ever. Like salad in a bowl.

Gazpacho

In my Mad Men story here, I suggested serving this recipe in shot glasses as shooters. But you can certainly just serve it it bowls.
Yield: about 8 to 10 cups.

5 pounds ripe, juicy local tomatoes (about 6 to 7 large), cored
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
1/2 green pepper, cored and seeded
1/2 red onion
1 jalapeno, seeded
3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Chop all the vegetables into large chunks. Place in the bowl of a food processor. Add olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and puree until smooth. Strain through sieve into a bowl. Refrigerate until cold, up to 3 days. Before serving, stir and strain again, then pour into individual shot glasses.