Red & White Gazpacho with Seared Scallops
I don’t know about you, but this heat wave is starting to get exhausting. With record temperatures skyrocketing to 100+, the last thing I felt like doing was turning on my stove or standing over a scorching hot grill. Just stepping outside onto the deck felt like walking into a giant oven. I came home from work, peeled off my sweaty button-down, and decided to make soup. Yes… that’s right, soup in a heat wave.
Gazpacho is a traditional Spanish soup made from raw vegetables, that originated in the southern region of Andalusia.
Now a days, gazpacho has many different variations, and the term gazpacho is almost generic for chilled vegetable soup. The good thing about this refreshing, summer soup is that it can be made entirely in your blender or food processor.
Most countries have some type of staple, peasant dish that incorporates crusty, day-old bread into a fabulous meal, such as the Italian tomato and bread soup or panzanella, a cold bread salad. Gazpacho is Spain’s equivalent of these peasant dishes that takes leftovers and brings them to life.
Since, the preparation is so simple, I decided to make both the classic red and white varieties. The red gazpacho is tomato based, and in my opinion tastes better when it is chunky and has some texture.
I didn’t have any day old bread, so I toasted some sliced white bread and cut the crusts off like I would for a toddler’s PB & J. I soaked the crusty bread in some ice water for about twenty minutes while I got my blender ready.
From there on out it’s just a matter of tossing in different ingredients as if you were making a smoothie. I rang the water out of the bread by squeezing the soggy toast in clenched fists and added that first, along with tons of cherry tomatoes, red onion, jalapeno, garlic and cucumber.
Cucumber, bread, garlic and tomatoes are staples in red gazpacho, but I enjoy a little heat from the jalapenos. As the blender roared away, I added a stream of extra virgin olive oil, and a splash of Spanish Sherry vinegar. The bread thickens the soup and makes it all come together.
After everything is incorporated, I passed the liquid through a fine mesh strainer to remove some of the gritty skins, pulp, and larger chunks of bread. With the red gazpacho, I like a chunky texture so I reserved a small dice of all of the components that I folded into the puree after. I cleaned out my blender and refrigerated the gazpacho until it was time to serve. My white gazpacho is a little bit more elegant and refined than the red. I start off the same way, with the soggy bread, and garlic cloves, but I then toss in some toasted almonds.
The almonds give the soup a nuttiness to balance out the sweeter flavors of white grapes. Into the blender goes some of the ice water, and some white grape juice followed by the Sherry vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil. I usually press the “liquefy” button on my blender for this soup because a smooth, velvety texture is more important. I also pass the liquid through the strainer twice to make sure there is no grit in the mouthfeel.
The white gazpacho is then seasoned, chilled, and set aside until it’s ready to serve. The longer these soups sit in the fridge, the more flavorful they get, which makes leftovers a must. Since I set my thermostat for 68 degrees, I felt that it was okay to turn my stove on for only two minutes. I quickly seared some fresh scallops on one side until they were golden brown and caramelized.
Seafood and gazpacho are a great combination. A lot of times restaurants will serve their gazpacho in a martini glass with a few jumbo shrimp dangling over the edge. I plated a few of the scallops like buoys in the middle of each soup and topped them with a few different garnishes. With two different soups and some light seafood, we needed a wine that was equally refreshing.
I chose to open a bottle of Fetish Field of Dreams Moscato, from the Barossa Valley, Australia. This wine is modeled after the slightly sweet, slightly sparkling wines from Northern Italy. The crisp, effervescence is so refreshing with the soup. When you pour the cold wine into the glass a foamy head appears, reminiscent of a Belgian Ale. It gives off aromas of flowers, white peaches and honeydew melons.
Unlike other dessert wines, the moscato is low in alcohol and isn’t sticky and syrupy, which makes it pleasant to serve with a meal. The subtle, sweet fruit complimented the spiciness of the red gazpacho, and was pleasantly elegant with the white. The tiny bubbles cleared your palate after each sip and prepared you for a slurp of a totally different flavor. After tasting the wine, and the soup separately, I realized that a few splashes of the bubbly moscato would actually give the soup a whole new character.
Marinating fresh berries in Moscato is also a great dessert when spooned over a creamy custard. We had plenty of leftovers of soup to bring to the pool the next day, but the Field of Dreams disappeared quickly. Thankfully, I didn’t start hearing voices about building a baseball field in the middle of South Boston, but if it meant that rain will come, I might consider it.
