Photo by Lynden Steele/Post-Dispatch

I came home from work one hot night this week and started to think about supper. I was hungry, but not in the mood to cook. Farm-fresh tomatoes sat ripe on the windowsill. Half a bottle of vegetable juice, leftover from my favorite caponata recipe, was in the fridge, along with half a bowl of cucumber-onion salad (cut the vegetables thinly, then let marinate in some Hendrickson’s Dressing.)

Put them all  together, and you get gazpacho.

For a guide, I pulled out one of my favorite all-purpose cookbooks, The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. The recipe that follows is based on the one in the cookbook, but feel free to improvise. I did.

GAZPACHO
Yield: 8 servings

3 large, ripe tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 yellow or red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into large chunks
1 large or 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and cut into large chunks
1 medium to large clove garlic, peeled
1/2 red onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
4 to 5 cups vegetable juice (V8)
1/3 to 1/2 cup sherry vinegar
Extra-virgin olive oil
Ground black pepper
1/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Pulse tomatoes in a food processor until finely chopped. Transfer to a large pitcher or bowl.

Add bell pepper to processor; pulse until finely chopped. Add to pitcher. Repeat with cucumbers.

With processor running, drop garlic through the feed tube and process until minced. Add onion to processor; pulse until finely chopped. Add to tomato mixture.

Stir in vegetable juice and 1/3 cup vinegar. Add a tablespoon or two of oil, just enough to meld the other flavors. Season to taste with black pepper. If necessary, stir in more vinegar and/or oil to taste.

Cover and chill. Just before serving, stir in parsley.