Cherry Gazpacho
4 servings
45 minutes
The secret to this soup's success is truly summery, sweet and ripe tomatoes and cherries, which you won't mind putting in a soup bowl when they're in season. The soup's color isn't fire-red, but much more interesting - wine-burgundy (if you use dark tomatoes like bull's heart) or fiery red (with pink tomatoes), and the flavor delicately unfolds in a spiral - from vegetable and herbal notes to sweet fruity shades.
1
Prepare all the ingredients.
2
Sprinkle a slice of bread with olive oil and quickly fry on both sides in a pan.
- Olive oil: 120 ml
- White sandwich (toast) bread: 2 pieces
3
Rub one side of the bread with a garlic clove, cut into small cubes, and transfer to a large bowl.
- Garlic: 3 cloves
4
Chop the second clove of garlic, remove the seeds from the sweet pepper, peel the cucumber and also remove the seeds, then cut both into small cubes.
- Garlic: 3 cloves
- Red sweet pepper: 1 piece
- Cucumbers: 1 piece
5
Add garlic, pepper, and cucumber to the bowl with the bread.
- Garlic: 3 cloves
- Red sweet pepper: 1 piece
- Cucumbers: 1 piece
6
Remove the pits from the cherries, add the berries to a bowl (save 12 berries to chop for serving).
- Sweet cherry: 450 g
7
Pour in tomato juice, vinegar, and 60 ml of olive oil. Add salt and pepper, and let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours.
- Tomato juice: 300 ml
- Red wine vinegar: 15 ml
- Olive oil: 120 ml
- Salt: to taste
- Ground black pepper: to taste
8
Cut the crust off the second slice of bread, dice it, and mix with the remaining olive oil.
- White sandwich (toast) bread: 2 pieces
- Olive oil: 120 ml
9
Sauté in a pan with thyme leaves and remaining garlic, stirring. Transfer the croutons to a paper towel and discard the garlic. Season the croutons with salt.
- Garlic: 3 cloves
- Thyme: 1 sprig
- Salt: to taste
10
Blend the mixture of vegetables and berries into a puree, strain through a sieve, season with salt, pepper, and add Tabasco to taste.
- Salt: to taste
- Ground black pepper: to taste
- Tabasco sauce: to taste
11
Pour the gazpacho into deep bowls, sprinkle each serving with croutons, crushed cherries, and garnish with basil.
- Basil leaves: to taste
