Summer's Staple

Cafe Drake recalls reading several years ago that neighbors in NYC consume, on average, during the three long and swampy months of our local torpid summers, 4-5 iced coffees per day. 

A boon to every corner deli and coffee shop but dangerous to both lean wallets and dehydrated block crawlers, the iced coffee addiction has now been tamed (within this particular Life anyway) to no more than one in the morning and the life-saving 3PM dosage. 

How to kick a (semi) bad habit? Replace it with a healthier one, of course. Cafe Drake now keeps giant jars of Madrid-style gazpacho permanently on fridge shelves through September. Every variation, from the chopped-salad-in-a-soup bowl variety to the drinkable, pre-appetizer shot is beloved here, but the classic example below is our current Go-To lunch, snack or light supper.

(No, we can never whip out the blender to prepare gazpacho without laughing over Carmen Maura's iconic recipe/comic scene from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Only when the temps hit the high 90s do we actually chuck in the mixture her recommended Miltown tablets!)

Fool-proof: Chop roughly 4 ripe tomatoes (they can't be mealy) and place in a blender with 3-4 cups tomato juice. Add in: 1 chopped green bell pepper, 1 chopped jalapeno pepper, 1 chopped red onion, 2 chopped cukes or 1 regular cucumber (no need to peel), 3-4 cloves chopped garlic, a splash of red wine vinegar, a healthy splash of good olive oil (don't use your very best), 1 thick slice of bread (baguette works well but any good quality bread will suffice) soaked for 5 seconds in water, a generous amount of salt and black pepper and a thick pinch of sugar. Blend it all to the consistency you like. 

Ideally, let rest in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before serving, drizzled with olive oil and fleur de sel.

Happily, the soup keeps well for at least 4 days under refrigeration, though you should remove from the fridge about 5 minutes before serving to savor the best flavor.