Chilled provencal tomato soup with pesto Recipe

Method

• 1. FOR THE TOMATO SOUP

  Peel the tomatoes and roughly chop. Peel the cucumber and cut into small dice. Cut the pepper in half, remove the seeds and then cut into small dice. Finely dice the onion. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Remove the seeds from the chilli and finely dice.
  
  Place the tomatoes, peppers, onion, cucumber and garlic in a bowl. Add the thyme, chopped chilli, vinagr, salt and pepper to the bowl and then leave to marinate for as long as possible.
  
  When marinated, add the olive oil and blend well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

• 2. TO MAKE THE PESTO

  Preheat the oven to 180'C.
  
  Place the pine nuts on a baking sheet and cook for 5 minutes in the oven until golden brown.
  
  Peel the garlic and chop finely. Pick the leaves from the basil and discard the stalks. Grate the parmesan.
  
  Place the basil leaves, garlic and olive oil in a food processor and blitz until you have a fine puree. Add the pine nuts and pulse, just to chop the pine nuts.
  Remove the pesto from the food processor and stir in the grated parmesan.
  
  Add more oil if required and season with salt if necessary.

• 3. TO SERVE

  Make sure the gazpacho is well chilled and then serve in individual verrines. Serve with a drizzle of the pesto on top of the soup.