Thursday, September 23, 2010

So I Had This Great Idea

If you visit this blog now and then, you may know I like to get jiggy with teh recipes.
The year before last I cooked a "dry minestrone," which was a platter of beans and summer vegetables roasted, but not drowned in liquid. I thought it was clever.
This year, I decided to throw together a dry gazpacho. Everything but the tomato juice (and it really bothers me to use canned tomato juice with all that great produce, so good riddance).
Chunked up tomatoes from the garden. A little onion. Some cucumber. Oh, and bread cubes, a solid version of the bread I usually spin to smoothness in a regular blender gazpacho. Torn cubes, how cute.
Seasonings would be familiar: lovely oil, Spanish sherry vinegar, salt.
This is fun, right? Dry gazpacho, a deconstructed delicacy. No one ever thought of this before!
Yeah. But.
I "invented" panzanella. There it was, right in front of me. Panzanella.
Take a little panzanella and blend it hard enough, you get gazpacho.
Oh well. It was good.

7 comments:

Kailyn said...

Back in June or so I made a gazpacho salad with shrimp. Everything was cooked on the grill and then combined. Quite yummy.

Chilebrown said...

Oh, that is so Marin! Speaking of Marin, Ms. Goofy and I are going to make an appearance at you market Sunday. Clean hair is optional.

cookiecrumb said...

Kailyn: Wow, wow. At 8:43 a.m. I am hungry for your salad. Brill.

Chilebrown: Yeah, well I'm a dope.
Rob will probably be at the market at 8. I'll try to join him. My hair is getting clean today. Hope it lasts! :)

Shine said...

It sounds like you are feeling better which I am glad for!

I didn't have time to comment that day but I have added "Dorito's Mac" to my repertoire which has made Mr. O'M a devoted fan.

This recipe is lovely. I am madly consuming tomatoes with the sort of panic one has when one knows that a passionate love affair has a time limit. I know winter (read wooden tasting tomatoes) will soon be upon us and this recipe suits my current eating pursuits just perfectly!

cookiecrumb said...

Shine: You already made the Doritos Mac? Yeee! I'm ready for more, but I have all these other ideas I gotta get to (and yes, I'm feeling better, thanks!).
So happy to hear you'll try the panzanella. Some people don't like "wet" bread (you can toast it first to keep it crunchier).
I just picked one beautiful Arkansas Traveler tomato this morning. BLT?

Denise | Chez Danisse said...

Ha, I was reading along thinking hey, this is panzanella, and then you called it out yourself. Whatever you call it, it looks great.

cookiecrumb said...

Denise: Thanks. Ha. :)
It is *finally* tomato season in my back yard. Seven plants; we'll be lucky if we get 30 toms.