Summer Gazpacho

Rule #1: If you can’t get in-season, farmer's market tomatoes, don’t bother. Supermarket tomatoes will not cut it.

Ingredients

3 lbs. of ripe tomatoes

1 red or yellow bell pepper

2 cucumbers

1 cup of cold water

1 large garlic clove

¼ cup (or less) of good-quality white or red wine vinegar

½ cup of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for about 30 seconds to loosen the skins. When cool, peel off the skins and roughly chop the tomatoes. Strain the tomatoes through a rotary food mill so that you end up with pure tomato juice.

Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds with a small spoon. Roughly chop the cucumbers. Remove the seeds from the bell pepper and roughly chop the pepper.

Put the cucumber and pepper into a blender with the water, vinegar, and olive oil, and blend until smooth. You can lightly blend it for a rougher textured gazpacho or blend it until it’s completely smooth, whichever you prefer.

Mix the blended ingredients with the tomato juice and add salt and pepper to taste. The soup improves over time as the flavors intermingle.

Serve cold with croutons. Better yet, when you buy the tomatoes at the farmers market, pick up a couple of ears of fresh corn. Slice off some cornels (raw) and drop them in the soup. It gives it a nice crunchy taste.