Receta Authentic Gazpacho
Whatever happened to David
Rosengarten? You may remember the
marvelously low-key television chef who preceded the food network rampage that
made stars out of everyone from Bobby Flay to Giada di Laurentis. David’s show “Taste” was a wonderful learning
experience as David deep-dived into his subject matter with such thoroughness
and thoughtfulness that you came away feeling you had some expertise in whatever
food David was extolling on that particular day.
Beyond the television show, David
created an immensely useful cookbook
“The Dean and DeLuca Cookbook” (Random House 1996). This amazing encyclopedia of recipes and the
story of their origins is a great source of authentic recipes from all over the
globe. Dean and DeLuca was one of New
York’s first free-standing gourmet stores.
It came alive in Soho and was a mecca for foodies from all over the
city. It’s still there and certainly
worth a visit even though immense food halls like Eataly and the Whole Foods
chain have cut into that feeling that what was on offer at Dean and Deluca was
exclusively theirs.
And what of David Rosengarten? Completely self-taught, David’s background –
a degree from Colgate, a doctorate in dramatic literature from Cornell and a
stint teaching theater at Skidmore – should have hinted at this Renaissance
guy’s restlessness. After publishing a
subscription-only newsletter, “David Rosengarten’s Tastings”, for several years
he abruptly “moved on to other ventures’ in 2008. In May of 2010, he re-emerged with
year.
Now about Gazpacho. It strikes me as the absolutely ideal recipe
to share with you as the country is gripped in this brutal heat wave. First off, it uses all those beautiful fresh
vegetables that overflowing the farmer’s market tables right this moment. It requires no cooking at all and very little
preparation. You put everything into
the food processor and fire it up. Put
the finished soup into the refrigerator to get it icy cold. Then serve it alone or with any number of
garnishes. I confess that I topped mine
with sour cream which is certainly not part of David’s authentic recipe but
something I think is a very good accompaniment.
It will come as little surprise that
like all classic regional dishes, Gazpacho is rife with controversy. The main one here is whether to incorporate
the bread into the recipe. Of course,
the carb police will object mightily but as David points out “For God’s sake,
the word gazpacho itself comes from the Arabic word for bread”. He goes on to say that “without the
bread…gazpacho is just V-8. We couldn’t agree more. The secondary controversy is the use of a
minute quantity of olive oil—all of two tablespoons for every six servings—that
the fat police seek to eliminate. Give
me a break! The final question is
whether the tomatoes should be peeled. I
suppose pre-food processor, there was some validity to this. But David points out that the resultant puree
makes the peel virtually impossible to find in the soup. Here’s the recipe:
Recipe for Authentic Sevillan
Gazpacho from David Rosengarten
- 2/3 cup White Onions; chopped
- 1-6 0z. cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
- 4 oz Crustless French bread
- 1 large clove of garlic, peeled
- 12 oz. ripe red tomatoes cut into coarse chunks
- 6 oz. red bell pepper, seeded and cut into coarse chunks
- 2 tbp. Spanish or other fruity olive oil.
- 6 tbsp. Finely-chopped onion
- 6 tbsp. Finely-chopped hard-boiled egg
- 3/4 c Small toasted croutons
- 6 tbsp. Finely-chopped green bell
- olives
- In a food processor or blender puree
- tomatoes, onions, garlic, cucumber, red pepper, bread, olive oil and vinegar
until very smooth, 2 minutes or more. Refrigerate several hours. Before
serving, season with salt and pepper and strain through a sieve if desired.
Thin with ice water if needed. Divide among 6 soup bowls. Serve.