• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Italian Food Made Simple

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Resources
    • Conversion Charts
    • Glossary
  • Travel Italia
  • Contact
  • Did You Know

Gazpacho Italian Style

June 26, 2015 by Barbara Leave a Comment

The Best Gazpacho Recipe

I have never seen gazpacho served in Italy.  There isn’t even an “h” in the Italian alphabet.  When an Italian word requires a “ch” sound, the word contains a “c” followed by an “i” or an “e”.  Note the word ciao.  Anyhow, gazpacho is a dish from Andalusia.  Spain not Alabama.  And just because I haven’t seen gazpacho in Italy doesn’t mean that some restaurant there somewhere doesn’t serve it to an international crowd.

There are probably as many recipes for Spanish gazpacho as there are Italian recipes for ragu.  I have had this recipe forever. It’s tasty–and versatile because it can be tinkered with in so many ways.  And a cold, really refreshing soup like this one is perfect for summer.

image

I call this soup Gazpacho Italian Style.  Why?  Because it contains several traditional Italian ingredients such as tomatoes, roasted peppers, garlic, olive oil and cucumbers.  Italy doesn’t have the market cornered on any of these ingredients but, hello, this blog is called Italian Food Made Simple.

These traditional Italian ingredients--tomatoes, garlic and roasted peppers--are key ingredients of gazpacho.

Look at these beautiful cucumbers I found for sale, living in perfect harmony with those green beans you see there, at the outdoor market in our town, Sansepolcro.  Begging to be tossed into…something.  Usually a salad.

This photo shows Italian cucumbers brought to market in Sansepolcro, Italy. They are a key ingredient in gazpacho.

But here are the ingredients often key to gazpacho that you won’t see in Italy: limes, cilantro and jalapeno peppers.  I have tried to explain cilantro to our Tuscan property manager but he has never tasted it.  (Actually, he describes himself as the product of a mixed marriage: a Tuscan father and an Umbrian mother.)

These are key gazpacho ingredients--limes, jalapeno peppersand cilantro--that are not used in Italian cooking.

If you really want to make a really low-cal dish of this soup, omit the olive oil.  Me…gotta have it.  If you want to substitute the lime juice for lemon juice, feel free.  You can also leave out the cilantro if it’s not your cup of tea, and try parsley or some other herb.  You can add chopped carrots, sliced celery or diced zucchini. This soup will go wherever you take it.

The problem with making gazpacho is that there’s a whole of choppin’ and dicin’.  But just follow the recipe below to find your big payoff–a big pot of summer soup.  You can dine out on it for days.

image

Print

Gazpacho Italian Style

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: One hour

Ingredients:

  • 6 tomatoes
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 6 ounces roasted peppers from a jar
  • 2 jalapeno peppers
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 small red onion
  • 1 tablespoon lime zest
  • 2 cups tomato juice
  • 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, or to taste
  • 4-6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

  1. Chop the tomatoes into fairly small pieces and place them in a bowl.  An optional move: I first cut them in half and squeeze out the seeds.
  2. Peel and half lengthwise the cucumbers, cut out the seeds and dice and place them in bowl with the tomatoes.
  3. Chop the roasted peppers and place in the same bowl.
  4. Seed and dice the jalapeno peppers, dice the onion and mince the garlic cloves. Add all to the bowl along with the lime zest.
  5. Mix all ingredients in the bowl and set aside two cups of the mixture.
  6. To the remaining mixture in the bowl, add tomato juice, lime juice, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper.  Puree this in a blender or food processor, in batches if necessary, until smooth.  Place this mixture back into a bowl with cilantro and the reserved 2 cup mixture and the olive oil and gently stir.
  7. Refrigerate at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight, and serve cold.  Adjust the seasoning to taste.

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: cold soup, gazpacho, roasted peppers, summer soup, tomato soup

Previous Post: « How to Make Limoncello
Next Post: In Vino Veritas »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar


Hi. I'm Barbara Francis and I hope you like authentic Italian food as much as I do. It's simple, fresh, seasonal. What's not to like? And it's part of my heritage. So join me in the kitchen of Italian Food Made Simple. Just step right over the dog, she won't move even if you ask her.

more about me ยป

Stay Connected

RSS Twitter Facebook

Search

Archives

  • June 2018
  • February 2018
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014

Copyright © 2023 Italian Food Made Simple on the Foodie Pro Theme