Gazpacho

• 6 lbs ripe tomatoes
• 4 cucumbers
• 4 shallots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 rounds pita bread
• 2 t salt
• 1/2 t fresh ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup good quality white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup good quality olive oil

Peel, seed and loosely chop the tomatoes and the cucumbers. Preserve as much of the juice from these as you can, discarding the skins, seeds and pulp.

Chop or tear the pita bread into chunks and soak in the reserved juice plus water to cover if necessary

Working in batches if necessary (and unless you have an industrial sized Cuisinart, it will be,) load up a food processor with all the ingredients except the olive oil. Pulse a few times, then leave on for 20-30 seconds to get everything very well blended. With the machine still on, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Note: since it’s all going to get stirred together in the end I don’t worry about perfectly divided batches; for instance, i’ll do all the bread with the first batch and all the olive oil in the last

Pour each batch into a large, non-reactive container and chill for a couple of hours before serving.

There’s several additional things you can do to spruce this up for serving:

• chop up another pita round into bite size pieces, toss with olive oil and toast to make crutons
• finely chop another cucumber and/or tomato and use to top each bowl
• drizzle with more olive oil