Soup · Andalusia, southern Spain
Gazpacho
Cold Andalusian soup of raw tomatoes and cucumber, sharpened with vinegar.
About the dish
Gazpacho is the cold soup of Andalusia in southern Spain. Its roots are older than the tomato’s arrival from the Americas: early versions were bread, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and water pounded together, a family that still includes ajo blanco, the white almond gazpacho of Málaga. Tomatoes became central in the 1800s.
A classic gazpacho blends very ripe tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and salt, often with a piece of stale bread soaked to give it body. Blending the oil in last makes a light emulsion, so the soup turns creamy and pale without any dairy. Ripe tomatoes bring sweetness, acidity and savory depth of their own, and the vinegar sharpens them.
Cold dulls the taste of salt and sweetness, so a soup that tastes right at room temperature can seem flat once chilled. Cooks season it, chill it for a few hours and taste again. It is served very cold, often with small dice of cucumber, pepper, onion and toasted bread. Salmorejo, from Córdoba, is the thicker cousin with more bread, topped with chopped egg and cured ham.
Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.
The flavors it leans on
Gazpacho in Night Kitchen
In the game, Gazpacho is a soup in the recipe book. A plate is named Gazpacho when it holds these cards and is cooked with exactly this technique, with at most one extra ingredient, and tastes the part: sour 2 or more.
Ingredients
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
Technique
- Chill
How those cards taste
Cooked from just these cards for an average ticket, before tonight’s mood and quirks, it would please Odile (3 stars), Hattie (3 stars) and Dot (2 stars) most.
“They serve a cold soup in Spain, tomatoes and cucumber, never cooked. Perfect for a hot studio.”
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