YIELD Serves six, with leftovers.

Can you say summer? Hell yes. This is it, a cup of sunshine in a bowl. Gazpacho is a classic, Spanish tomato soup served cold. It's incredibly refreshing, raw, easy as pie, and amazingly delicious.

Before Columbus brought the tomato back to Europe, gazpacho was made with its other staple ingredients: crusty old bread, olive oil, garlic, salt, and vinegar.

My mother always added ice cubes to her gazpacho and I continue that tradition today. I don't know if I even have an exact recipe, this is a bit like making salsa, every time I do it it's a little bit different but always rocking good.

I know some chefs who like to really puree this. Me? I like it to keep a bit of its chunkiness like a medium-ground salsa. I love using heirloom tomatoes but anything will work, just as long as they are mega tasty. As for the ice, if you have big honking cubes you'll only need two but if you've got smaller sized ice I'd increase it up to four cubes. If you are opposed to ice, you can use a couple tablespoons of water.

My favorite way to serve gazpacho is to have little bowls of the diced cucumbers, bell peppers (use red or yellow ones) and onions. I'll also pass around a bottle of good finishing olive oil. My guests can then choose how much or how little they want to float on top, you know, there's always someone who doesn't like raw onions. Doing this makes the food and the meal more interactive, more hands on, and fun. I love it when people play with their food.

Hopefully you'll love this so much it'll become part of your summer repertoire. It's like the first snow of the season for me, every summer I celebrate the first gazpacho of the year and then I cry over my bowl of the last one in autumn.

INGREDIENTS