Modern gazpacho — a chilled blended soup of tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar, and stale bread — is an invention of the 19th century, because the tomato didn't arrive in Spain until after Columbus. The original gazpacho — documented since Roman times — was white: stale bread pounded with garlic, almonds, olive oil, vinegar, and water. This ancestor survives as ajoblanco (white garlic-almond cold soup), which is the older, more historically authentic version. Gazpacho in all its forms is survival food — a way to make stale bread, water, and whatever vegetables were available into a refreshing meal in the brutal heat of Andalusian summer.
- **The bread is the body.** Traditional gazpacho is thickened by stale bread soaked in water and blended into the mixture. Without bread, you have salmorejo (a thicker, bread-less tomato-garlic soup from Córdoba) or simply tomato juice. The bread gives gazpacho its creamy, substantial body. - **It must be very cold.** Gazpacho at room temperature is not gazpacho — it is tomato soup. The cold is the refreshment. Refrigerate for minimum 2 hours; serve in chilled bowls. - **Sherry vinegar, not red wine vinegar.** The specific nutty-sharp character of sherry vinegar (from Jerez — see Product 170) distinguishes Andalusian gazpacho from generic cold tomato soup. - **Ajoblanco is the ancestor.** White gazpacho made from almonds, garlic, bread, olive oil, and vinegar, served with grapes. This pre-tomato version is arguably more interesting than the red version everyone knows.
THE 2,000th ENTRY AND BEYOND — FILLING THE FINAL GAPS