WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988)
Gazpacho Soup
Carmen Maura is having a bad day. Groggy with a sleeping-pill hangover, the TV star is trying frantically to see her lover one last time before he leaves her. In a last attempt to keep him at home, she makes his favourite gazpacho soup, laces it with tranquillisers and leaves it in the fridge. He never returns to drink it, but when a friend on the run turns up after being implicated in a terrorist plot, Maura finds herself using the soup to drug the police who come hunting for her, accidentally knocking out her stepson’s ghastly fiancée at the same time. While Pedro Almodóvar’s plot is as playfully convoluted as he can manage, Maura’s soup is the one thing in the film that is straightforward, as gazpacho is extremely easy to make and requires no cooking.
METHOD
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water and peel off the skins. Chop all of the vegetables roughly and put into a blender. Add the bread, oil and vinegar and blend in five-second pulses to keep the soup slightly chunky. If it is too thick for your taste, add a little water and pulse again. Season and serve iced in summer, otherwise at room temperature.
What you need
2kg ripe tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled
1 medium onion, peeled
1 green pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 to 3 slices stale, crustless white bread, soaked in a little water
7tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Water
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FEARGUS O’SULLIVAN