The perfect summer gazpacho

This summer, Emilie and her girls came to see us in our family house in France -- such fun! While the kids were enjoying themselves endlessly, Emilie and I spent hours discussing, purchasing and preparing food -- a passion we both share! One recipe we made a few times and which was a huge, huge success, was this perfect gazpacho by Felicity Cloake.

Ms. Cloake spent quite some time cooking up different versions of gazpacho, and came up with one gazpacho that is, well, perfect. (And we lazily even omitted step 3, passing the soup through a sieve!)

There's no better time to make this yummy soup than now -- when the tomatoes are ripe and tasteful, and the weather still so agreeable. It's super easy to prepare in the morning for a delicious, healthy and fresh lunch (or dinner).

Here’s the recipe.

The perfect summer gazpacho

• 100g slightly stale crusty white bread, soaked in cold water for 20 mins

• 1kg very ripe tomatoes, diced

• 1 ripe red pepper and 1 green pepper, deseeded and diced

• 1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

• 150ml extra virgin olive oil

• 2tbsp sherry vinegar

• Salt, to taste

• Use chopped black olives, parsley and hard-boiled eggs to garnish.

Put the tomatoes, peppers and cucumber in a big bowl and use an immersion blender to mix everything until smooth. Squeeze out the bread and add it to the mixture. Bring to taste with the sherry vinegar, salt and pepper.

Pass the mixture through a fine sieve, cover and put into the fridge to chill.

Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.

xxx Esther