River Cottage

This gazpacho is a light and refreshing summer soup recipe from Hugh

Serves 4

• 2 thick slices stale white bread (around 100g), crusts removed, torn into pieces
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1–1.5kg large, ripe tomatoes, skinned
• ½ cucumber, peeled and sliced
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
• ½ small red onion, chopped
• 50ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (ideally apple balsamic)
• 1 tsp sugar
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To finish

• Croûtons
• Shredded basil or chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Put the bread into a bowl with the crushed garlic and add 200ml cold water. Leave to soak while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

2. Cover the tomatoes with boiling water, leave for a couple of minutes, then scoop out and peel off their skins. Quarter and deseed the tomatoes, putting all the seeds and clinging juicy bits into a sieve over a bowl. Put the skinned flesh into a separate bowl. When all the tomatoes are done, press the seedy bits in the sieve to extract as much juice as possible, adding it to the tomato flesh.

3. Put the soaked bread and garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, onion, olive oil, vinegar and sugar in a food processor (you should just about be able to do it in one batch). Process to a coarse purée and season with salt and pepper to taste. You can leave it chunky, or whizz a bit longer then press through a sieve if you prefer.

4. Cover and chill for 2–3 hours, then taste and adjust the seasoning.

5. Serve the gazpacho topped with croûtons and shredded basil or chopped parsley.