Café Mazahar

on cold soups! the gazpacho you never had before and the ajo blanco of your dreams

photo credit: Saskia van Osnabrugge, courtesy Roberta Corradin

Between those beautiful cacti a almost shy white house hides behind few olive trees.

It is the beautiful simple Sicilian country house of my dear friend and writer Roberta Corradin where i cooked a great deal of recipes for my cookbook Cafe Mazahar (oh yes i love that title meaning café orange blossom). It was a pure place of bliss and so fitting with the idea and recipes of the book. It felt like a real exploration of the Mediterranean. Also literally as i needed a fresh pulpo and it was nowhere to be found because it had been terribly windy. Spoilt city girl as i am where everything is always at hand i thought yes, actually this is how it’s supposed to be: wind means no pulpo. Live with it!

And now on to cold soups! Mediterranean cold soups: aren’t they the best in hot weather? Besides they are easy and they love so many summer vegetables herbs and fruits. I made two versions of the originals in my book. One gazpacho i took to the Middle East: i added sumac, dried mint, pomegranate molasses and a pistachio-oil. And an ajo blanco that became a bit more festive: with dried raisins instead of the usual fresh and a almond tarragon oil.

photo credit: Maaike Koorman & Saskia van Osnabrugge

Today i’m making a new cold soup for the summer ahead so fresh and pungent with a very lickable salsa and again: you will see, its damn easy.

Tomato apricot gazpacho with with a Italian lemon salsa with parsley and almond - RECIPE BELOW PHOTO

i like my gazpacho light, the base is only tomato no garlic no cucumber or paprika. just the best ripe tomatoes some good quality vinegar, salt and olive oil. and…in this case a light sweet aromatic touch of apricots. Then you just swirl in as much of the lemon salsa AS YOU LIKE! I LIKE A LOT OF IT. Use really the Italian thick skinned lemon, as the normal ones are too sour and bitter for this. Now on any day with some sunshine you want this, at least i do.

SERVES 4-6

2 chunky organic boeuf tomatoes or other ripe tomatoes
4 ripe apricots, stone removed
red wine vinegar
good quality olive oil
1/2 Italian organic non waxed thick skinned lemon (type Amalfi)
1/2 bunch of parsley
olive oil
handful of almonds, toasted

1 Chop the tomatoes in big chunks and destone the apricots. Add everything to a blender en mix until smooth. Add a dash of red wine vinegar, some salt and olive oil. Blitz again (you can use a handmixer too of course) the most important part: taste. You can do this: add more vinegar salt and olive oil until its balanced AS YOU LIKE IT.

2 Chop the lemon in chunks: YES SKIN, WHITE PIT AND FLESH AND EVERYTHING. Put all of the lemon in a blender. Chop up the parsley and add to the lemon, with a generous glug of olive oil, salt and give it a short blitz. After this add the almonds and blitz again: you don’t want the texture to be smooth keep it rough and chunky. Add enough salt and maybe a dash of water if the consistency is too thick.

3 Eat the gazpacho with generous amounts of salsa stirred in. Keep on adding more salsa if you like. Left over salsa mops up divinely with some bread or sprinkle it over a burrata or inside a quick pastasauce. You could even make huge batch and fill up some jars.

Quick Gazpacho hacks

-is it too dull, add more vinegar lemon juice or salt

-is it too salty and lemony add some sweetness with fruit, sugar or honey

-use the best summer veg and fruit bursting with flavour

-make a nice salsa like this one to spice it up. Even put in something spicy if you like it hot (and cold).

-don’t listen to gazpacho purists but then again: it’s not so far from the Andalusian truth (with lemon and almond)

-you can make it ahead put it a thermos and take it with you to picknick, salsa apart.

-subscribe below for more Café Mazahar on your table