If you like cold soup, but gazpacho turns you off a bit, you should make salmorejo, the Andalucian dish that resembles a thick gazpacho but which is made very thick by the addition of bread. It's traditionally served in small bowls as a tapas, with a topping of crumbled hard-boiled egg and finely-chopped Serrano ham, with some local breadsticks to accompany. To me, it's the absolute taste of summer and it must be eaten outdoors, and Mrs Steve won't let me make it in winter. Contrary to popular belief, it can be made with top-quality canned tomatoes instead of fresh. In any dish that relies on tomatoes of any kind, there's a magic ingredient that transforms the grub beyond all your dreams. It's a half-teaspoon of sugar. Trust me on that one. Italian cooks use it even if they have the finest sun-ripened San Marzano tomatoes, though they wouldn't admit to it.

I have my own salmorejo recipe but I couldn't possibly post it in November in the northern hemisphere. Ask me again in May.