Last year we stumbled across some sun gold tomato beauties at the Green City Market and whipped up Thomas Keller’s recipe for Sun Gold Tomato Gazpacho from Ad Hoc at Home. This is not the first time we’ve posted about this cook book and probably will not be the past – this book is the best. Unlike most of the recipes in Ad Hoc at Home, this soup comes together really quickly and does not get every pot in your kitchen dirty.
With tomatoes being as awesome as they are right now, we had this gazpacho on the brain when we stopped by the market the other day. It is definitely worthy of a post.
Sun Gold Gazpacho, the Perfect Summer Soup
1 cup cold water
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
¼ cup coarsely chopped onion
2 lbs sun gold tomatoes, we used two heaping cartons and called it a day, stemmed and cut in half
1 cucumber, peeled and cut in half lengthwise with seeds scooped out
1 large yellow pepper, but in coarse pieces
1 large red bell pepper (honestly, half of one will do the trick)
1 T sherry vinegar, then maybe just a splash more
½ tsp smoky paprika
¾ - 1 cup olive oil
Handful of chives, diced
Put the water in a big bowl and add the garlic and onion. Get the tomatoes ready if they are not already and add all but one cup to the bowl with any juices leftover on the cutting board. Save that cup you set aside for garnish.
Slice half that cuc into half moon shapes and toss into the bowl. Save the other half for garnish. Toss the coarsely cut yellow pepper into the bowl too.
Let these guys hang out for five minutes, stirring around once or twice. Get the garnishes ready if you haven’t yet. Dice up the chives, finely dice the red pepper and the other half of the cucumber. Put the garnishes in the fridge.
Now back to the veggies in their bowl of water. Pour the whole thing into your blender. Or food processor if you want a mess. Keller calls for a Vita Mix, which I am sure is very awesome, but who has that?
Blend it all up. Strain through a fine-meshed strainer. You will probably have to do that in batches since the tomato skins get caught and you end up pushing the concoction through. Rinse out the blender. Toss the strained soup back in and add the paprika, sherry vinegar and some salt and pepper (Keller calls for white pepper, which I did not have so I used black). While blending, slowly start pouring the oil in until the soup gets “velvety.”
Add more vinegar or paprika, salt or pepper if you think it needs it. Garnish with your collection of garnishes and voila! Perfect with a grilled sandwich of prosciutto, fontina, goat cheese and basil.
