Watermelon and tomato soup by Ferrán Adriá

Still preparing blood-red dishes… do you think this means something? Better not find out.

Do you know Ferrán Adriá? Here’s a recipe of his I found in the net ages ago and that lay quietly asleep in my scrapbook. The scorching heat we suffered yesterday here in the Spanish plain (the rain in Spain doesn’t stay mainly in the plain, mark my words) compelled me to prepare something refreshing. And I felt like bluffing about preparing something by Ferrán Adriá… one of his few recipes accessible to poor mortals.

Watermelon and tomato soup with basil oil by Ferrán Adriá

• 1/4 watermelon
• 6 medium tomatos
• Basil infused oil (amount of basil to your taste)
• Salt and pepper

I had run out of basil, but I did have some sage infused oil. My desertic garden is not fit for basil, though we have a plant of sage. You can’t always get what you want, like the Rolling Stones said. Tumbleweeds and basil don’t go very well together.

Slice and peel the watermelon; try to get rid of as many seeds as you can. Cut the tomatos. You don’t need to peel and seed them if you’re going to process the soup in a very powerful food processor. In any case I prefer to put the final mixture through a sieve or food mill for thinness. Once processed, season with salt and pepper to your taste (I always skip the pepper… don’t like it). The recipe calls for a final oil drizzling on each soup serving. I preferred to just add a generous dash of oil to the whole soup for a sage-aroma touch. The sage flavour is delicious, but be careful and add the oil little by little while you try the taste every now and then.

This soup is really simple, quick to make and refreshing. Remember it should be served chilled, so put it in the fridge for a while before serving it. Watermelon lovers will love it. I’m not fond of watermelon and I liked it. We’ll have some more tonight on the veranda…