I was digging through my recipes when I stumbled upon this. It’s been ages since I’ve made this and honestly I don’t know why as I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this soup. There’s just something so comforting about tomato soup and grilled cheese. I’d say it reminds me of being a kid but as a kid I would INSTANTLY turn up my nose at tomato soup. That was just.. omg ICKY and for OLD PEOPLE! It wasn’t until 5 or 6 years ago (I guess when I first officially became old) that I forced myself to try Tomato Basil Soup at this restaurant. I did the whole dip the tip of the tongue so it barely touches the spoon taste to which it wasn’t half bad. However it wasn’t enough to make a fair assessment. So I bit the bullet and put a full spoon in my mouth.
Then I waited. I waited for the ickiness to come, with full glass of water in hand to wash down the ickiness but it never came. Instead I sat there, eyes became all doe-eyed and a ‘WOW, this is really good” comment came out of my mouth. I think I actually shoveled the rest in.
So now anytime I am in a restaurant, I will try their soup but 9 times out of 10, it’s not as good as this one 🙂 But then again, I have really, REALLY high standards.
I often garnish this with some shaved parmesan or even a small dollop of ricotta.
Grown Up Tomato Soup
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Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 1 ½ lbs tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise (I would strongly suggest using Roma)
- sea salt and cracked black pepper (do it to taste – it’s easier to add less at first and then add to it. You can’t really ‘take away’ spices)
- 2–4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped small
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3–5 garlic cloves, minced (this depends on your garlic preference. I like garlic so I use 4 nice size cloves)
- 1 tablespoon Thyme minced (use fresh) – If that’s not available use 1 teaspoon dried
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (do not drain!)
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 cups chicken stock (homemade preferably). If not make sure you buy the low-sodium broth
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Put the tomato pieces onto a baking sheet and drizzle liberally with olive oil careful so they do not overlap.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Roast tomatoes for about 1 hour. You don’t have to flip them.
- While tomatoes are roasting melt the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and saute until translucent ~ 5 minutes.
- Add in the garlic and thyme, stir and cook another 5 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
- Add crushed tomatoes (juice and all), basil and sugar.
- Taste this and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
- Stir the mixture, cover and reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove the cover and add the chicken stock and roasted tomatoes.
- Replace the cover and allow to simmer another 30 minutes stirring occasionally.
- If you have an Immersion Blender (I HIGHLY recommend everyone having one), puree everything in the pot until it’s creamy and smooth. If you don’t, you can add this liquid to a food processor or blender but BE CAREFUL as this is hot! Refer to your blender/food processor’s instructions on how to properly handle hot foods. Please again, be careful and take precautions!
- If using anything but an immersion blender, add the soup back into the pot.
- Add in the cream and stir until all combined. The soup will lighten in color to an orangish-color.
- Add in the Parmesan cheese and stir.
- Let this simmer, uncovered a few more minutes to allow the cream to warm up in the soup.
- Serve with garlic toast, homemade Asiago cheese croutons or crusty buttered bread.
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