Page "Gazpacho" Paragraph 20

In the historical description of gazpacho it was remarked that the original recipe uses bread, water, vinegar, oil and salt.

This recipe is very old in the Iberian Peninsula going back to Roman times.

Every Andalusian region or comarca has its own variety of this popular food so there are many types of gazpacho.

Gazpacho, since its humble origin, was a very deeply-rooted food for peasants and shepherds in the south of Spain.

This origin gave rise to a wide variety of dishes called gazpacho and to some others that don't have this name but belong to the same category.

Some authors have tried to classify all these variations.

The classification by colour implies that there is a difference between the red ones ( which contain tomato ), the white ones ( which contain no tomato, but include dried fruits ) and the green ones ( which are white but cointain some spices that make them green ).

The red one is the most prevalent one.

The only thing all these variations have in common is the original gazpacho, in other words, the basic paste made of garlic, which works as an emulsifier bread, the olive oil, the vinegar and salt.

Keeping the traditional ingredients some kind of red-coloured fruits such as fragarias, muskmelon, etc., are also frequently added.

These ingredients make the resulting gazpacho a bit sweeter than the traditional one.

Despite this gazpacho is served as a main dish and sometimes as tapas.