ˇGazpacho!

It’s kind of sad really. You spend all year suffering through sorry excuses for tomatoes only to face a few weeks when volume outpaces uses. What a sin! I loathe tossing any of these once-a-year beauties, so I’ve eaten my weight in BLTs, Caprese salads and pasta with raw tomato sauce. I’ve fallen back on two family favorites: tomato sandwiches made with gummy white bread, lots of Duke’s mayo and generous salt and pepper, and sliced tomatoes alongside fried eggs and hash browns. This week, I also pulled out my favorite gazpacho recipe. It’s from a cooking class I took a few years back with Chef Regina Charboneau at Twin Oaks B&B in Natchez.

We made outstanding dishes that day, including fried catfish, flash-fried mustard greens, butter biscuits, sweet potato crisp, black-eyed pea relish and a big bowl of succulent, tomato-happy gazpacho, a recipe that also makes fast work of four other summer bumpers, corn, zucchini, basil and cucumbers. Crisp, rosy, and absolutely delicious, here it is:

Regina Charboneau’s Corn and Zucchini Gazpacho from her class, “Southern Cooking at Twin Oaks” in Natchez

Makes 8 servings

quarter cup olive oil

2 cups fresh corn kernels

3 cups diced fresh tomato (if yellow or green tomatoes are available, RC prefers to use at least two types of tomatoes)

three-quarters cup minced red onion

2 cloves minced garlic

2 cups diced, seeded cucumber

2 cups (or more) tomato juice

quarter cup red wine vinegar

2 cups diced zucchini

3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1. In sauté plan, heat olive oil over medium heat.

2. Add corn and cook for about three minutes.

3. Add garlic and remove from heat and pour into a 4-qt. glass or metal bowl.

4. Add tomato, red onion, cucumber, tomato juice, red wine vinegar, zucchini and fresh basil.

5. Tabasco and salt may be added to taste.

6. Let sit for at least two hours before serving.